Aly Faber-Lifestyle

Mike Hartman, performance mindset strategist. This is Develop the Mindset of a Champion with former Stanley cup champion, Mike Hartman. Welcome to the show. Develop the Mindset of a Champion. I'm happy to introduce Ali Faber. Allie Faber is known as the stretch lady. It says it right on her. You look right there at the screen. She has over 16 years of expertise in the world of fitness and life coaching. Allie, it's great to have you. Really nice to have you here.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much. We have human interaction right now.

This is great. So I just. I'll tell a quick story. So about 12 years ago, I was introduced to Ally by a mutual friend. And this person said, I know this girl. She was in corporate America. She's loves fitness. Fitness is her passion. She enjoys it. She loves working with people. And I want you to meet her. So I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we met. And immediately when I met you, you could see that drive and energy. And you told me your story, which I don't want to take the story away. I want you to share it with everybody, how you were in corporate America, how you overcame certain things. And then we'll get more into what you're doing now. But it's a really great story to share, so I'm so happy to have you here. And Allie, please share your story, your passion, and how you got started in the business of fit.

Absolutely. Well, thank you again for having me on the show. I appreciate it. So I've struggled with fitness and health pretty much my entire life. Went in and out of having eating disorders when I was younger and discovered a whole new way to live when I was about 17. And I was taken in by some women who were very fit. And they taught me how to eat, how to exercise, and how to really restructure my life. So fast forward, I've had many ups and downs. Graduated from college, got a job in the corporate world, thought that was what I wanted to do and got into the corporate world and realized that for me it was an unhealthy lifestyle. And I ended up not really taking great care of myself, only to find that I was getting chronic headaches, I wasn't feeling well, my digestion wasn't good. Ended up going to a bunch of different types of alternative doctors, doctors. And ended up realizing that it was actually my job that was making me sick. And I discovered yoga and meditation at about 30 and it altered my life. And I decided when my last corporate job, which I was a headhunter for high tech companies and I was working for the largest recruiting company in the country and I was a VP and I had people reporting into me and it was crazy. I got laid off and it was the biggest gift. I decided to go ahead and get my yoga certification and my personal training certification at the same time. Ended up working for somebody who had her own business in the fitness and wellness industry and realized that I could do it and started teaching at yoga studios and fitness studios. And back in the day they were more combined than they are now. They're very separate now, but they were all combined. So I was able to do fitness and yoga and everything and started realizing that I could take the same skill set that I had in corporate America for working with people and do it in this industry. And so it's evolved over time and I've loved it. I've been able to work with professional athletes, student athletes, CEOs, moms, dads, single people, everyone. And really bringing distilling, the essence of what, yoga, meditation, some of the more esoteric pieces into a very easy to follow system that helps people to become more stable and mobile. Just like my T shirt says. And I've loved it and it's been an amazing journey and I just feel so blessed to be able to do this with my life and I feel really honored to be able to share this with, with you and the people that follow you. And it's just been really amazing. But I not healthy. I'm much healthier now doing what I love to do. But also it was a mindset shift as well. And so I'm also a life and health coach. As you know, I worked with you before and that's a piece of it, a huge component that I utilize as an adjunct piece to the stretching part of it, if that makes sense.

Yeah, well, you got a really great niche and I love what you have. And we're going to get more into it how it applies to everybody. So just take us through the steps of working through first with the everyday mom and dad.

Perfect. Pre Covid or during COVID Just overall pre Covid. During COVID So one of the biggest things that we work within our systems is with stress. And so one of the key components in stress is that it actually sits in the body and sits in the cells and makes us rigid not only in our physical body, but also in our breath. So I like starting off by teaching and working with breath work. And I know it sounds like kind of esoteric and weird, but the truth of the matter is that we can do without food and Water we cannot do without breath. And so teaching somebody to breathe properly, meaning to breathe into the diaphragm more than the chest and to actually have a full breath, does everything from improve cognition to improving digestion, to decreasing stress. As far as the stretching is concerned, I like to keep it simple and basic. You look at the major joints of the body and make sure that all of those are working in the way that they need to work. It's more of a retraining of the system to think about. The mobility part is as important as any other component of the exercise piece. During COVID I'd say do what you can. I'm getting a lot of requests for back mobility. A lot of people are sitting more, they're getting on zoom calls more, they're playing with their kids more, they're homeschoolers. They're all kinds of things. They become teachers. They become all these things that they're not. And so people are having much more back pain. And so I'm doing a lot more on my Instagram and on my Facebook. I'm doing a lot of free videos just to help with back mobility, especially extension, because we're all like this sitting in front of our computer screens.

Well, that's great. This also goes into. I really like what you have. We're going to talk a lot about the stretching and the mobility. I think it's great. And the business women or the businessman that like can work at an office or even a dentist. I used to work and still do with work with many dentists and they're hunched over. And I love the program that you have for individuals. Please share how you could help like a dentist or anybody in the professional world, businesswomen or businessman, how they could elongate their muscles and how they can improve their overall health and fitness.

So one of the key components is like how you're. How you're moving your body throughout your day. So one of the things that you can do is incorporate aspects of stretching in your day to day. Meaning if you're sitting in a chair a lot, doing twists or forward folds in your chair and just getting standing up, walking around. If you're on a telephone call, make sure you get a headset and walk around with your phone. Make sure you're getting up, walking, going to get a cup of water, going to the bathroom. Things of that sort are really good just to get your body up and moving. Specifically with a dentist or a hygienist or anybody who's compressing all day long because you're Compressing the abdominal wall all day long. Like I was talking about before spinal extension, which is what a lot of the videos I've been doing lately are about. Really expanding through the ribcage and rolling the shoulders back is a really, really great way to just open everything up and also helps you breathe better. So that's a really simple technique that almost anyone can use.

Fantastic. Now let's go into the athlete. Because I know, especially around Charlotte, you've been traveling around the country, you've worked with a lot of professional athletes. I remember years ago, without saying his name, I gave you a baseball player, that's six foot guy that was a first round draft choice in major League baseball. And you really helped him as far as the stretching. So what would you do like with a professional athlete? Is there a warm up? Please go through the process of how you work with a professional athlete.

Sure, sure. Basically, the, the first step of the process is assessment. So if you don't know what you're moving toward, it's very difficult to have a goal. So the assessment process works in two different ways. One is I have created an entire assessment process that looks at how people walk, how they move, how the joints are configured in their bodies, really understanding how that works. So that component is objective from the standpoint of me looking at someone and saying, hey, this is what I'm seeing and then going into how they're feeling. So I look to them to give me, I like to have three specific goals. So what they would like to see if they could wave a magic wand. Height not included, because I can't do anything about that. But I ask them to give me three goals, what they would like to see and feel in their bodies. And with my professional athletes, you know, it's normally, you know, I'd like to get, to get lower, I'd like to get more, you know, more mobility in my hips, I'd like my feet to move more quickly, things of that sort. And then from there I ask them to get film for me so I can actually see them in their process. And that helps me to understand what I need to work on. So step one is assessment. Step two is how we're going to work together. Is it going to be that I'm going to give them more active things to do? Do they need to work on their stability and do they need more of core strengthening inside of the stretching or is it strictly stretching? And inside of that, do they need more active stretching or where they're moving their bodies, or do they need more assisted Stretching, where I'm actually working with them. And so I have techniques in which I do both, and then it's, what are they going to do in between? And so I have an online program that I give all of my clients and that people can buy as a separate standalone where I will. It goes through all the major areas of the body, and it has both dynamic and static stretching as well as self assessments. So then I give them assignments, and so then I track their progress. And then we figure out, hey, do we need to reassess the goals? Normally that's done about three months in. So that's really how the program works when I work with a client.

Fantastic. So I'm going to talk. I work with AAU sports. The basketball guy is one of my closest friends as far as, like, in the business world. We're really close. The football guy is Keith Noel, who also is the hockey. So AAU has 41 different sports. They have a lot of young athletes. I'm just going to share a quick story with you. So in 19, this is why I love what you do. Because in 1988, as an athlete, people we don't really know because we have the dietitian, we have our exercise scientists, exercise physiologists, we have our trainer. So we show up and we go through these different processes. So in 1988, I had a stomach injury. I had an imbalance in my hips and I had core issues. I had muscle. I had micro tears. I've had two stomach surgeries in the course of my career. And when I was young, they sent me the Buffalo Sabre, sent me to Chicago for two weeks during my summer to learn a lot. But we didn't do weights back then. We're talking, I think, like I said, 1988. So what we did is we worked on a balance beam. We did a lot of stretching. We did all of these different techniques that had. That really just elongated the muscle. We did meditation back then. They had us listen to a cassette tape where they had us thinking, like, we're in the middle of the ocean. And then we did massage at the end. So I think you're. I know you are really onto something. I mean, you know, I thought here I was 19 years old. I thought I knew it all. And what I learned was there's this thing called proprioception. I don't even know what that was. Where it's time and space, where you're using different functionalities of your body and your limbs. And I think that's great. I mean, Ali. So you said so someone. One of the questions I was going to ask you is and you answered is how would you assess like a young athlete? Because I know you have athletes that all different ages. So let's say you have a young athlete. What age do you start with with your young athletes?

It's a great question. So it's dependent on the athlete and the sport. I prefer to start them at least 10 and normally about 12 because that's when. And thank you for bringing it up. Proprioception and kinesthetic awareness, how their bodies performance, time and space. I use both of those all the. So when a parent brings their child to me and let's say it's. I have a 10 year old that is a client. And when this young lady came to me, I realized I could work with her. And the reason why is because she had both of those components. She's a gymnast and one of the top in the state. And she was having issues with her spine. And she was having issues with her spine because in the gymnastics industry that rib flare is part of what they promote. And so she didn't have the abdominal stability and mobility to be able to support the rib flare. And so a lot of what we did when I assessed her, I asked her to show me the top five moves she needed to do and then show me pictures of what the perfect movements look like and videos. And so I assessed those and I said do you realize what's going into these? And we worked on the bits and components. So from an assessment standpoint, I do look at all the major joints in the muscles. I look for instability, I look for the way body structured. But I'm also going to look for what are they trying to do with their bodies. And that's how I decide if I'm going to take them on or not. And I also try to understand how much they understand about their bodies. And some of the process is an education process and knowledge transfer about muscles and bones and how things work. So it really is dependent upon that athlete. And I really have to have a conversation and understand where they are before I can decide to take.

Take someone on. Yeah. So the one thing I really like, that's why I wanted to do this interview because I really, I really believe in everything that you're doing. And I'm not going to say the average person or the average athlete, but what happens is in basketball, not a basketball player, but you're, but you mentioned proprioception. So you're on one leg for balance in hockey, you're using Your body and you're moving your hips and your ear on one leg, foot, baseball player, football player, soccer, tennis. Every sport there's movement. So people think, well, I'm just going to go to a trainer and work out in the gym. And unfortunately, we need to work on all of these movements. You said it earlier, moving and movements are so important before you do some of this other stuff. And so what, what I love, I love what you have. So I just. So when you have an athlete, he gets injured, they come to you. I know they want you to fix it right away. What's the process of. You have a young athlete, you have moms, they have. Their back is sore, go through that process.

So first of all, it takes a village. I hate to use a cliche, but I will. It really depends on what's going on. So when I do the assessment, I try to look for what's going on and then think about what's going to be the best course of action for this person. So sometimes if somebody has back pain, it's more structural, and sometimes we can work with that. With the fascia, the space that's underneath the skin before the muscle, we can move that fascia. Because I do a lot of fascia release, both manually as well as with equipment on the other side of it. If it's more bones and structural, I'll refer out. It could be super, super tight muscles, and I might not be able to release those completely and I might need to refer out. So I have a team of people that I work with that I can refer out to, and I have this across the country. So if somebody needs something, I can say, well, you know what, Here are the things that have helped for what you're experiencing. So the first thing is understanding it. Then as far as, like generalized back pain, you know, what's causing it. Is it. Because most people, if they say I have back pain, they think it's coming from their back. That would be logical, right?

It could be referred pain. Right? You don't.

It could be an old injury, it could be referred pain, it could be imbalance from the ankles all the way up. It could be something going on in their knee, it could be something going on in their shoulder. And so one of the things is to look at the body as a whole and understanding all the pieces and working backwards to understand what could be causing it. And of course, I'm going to work on their back and their back pain, of course, but understanding the other pieces and the components that go in with it. So I'LL work on all the body as a whole to understand what's going on and then having honest conversations. You know, if it's a young athlete, are they driving like this? Are they sitting at their computer? Are they gaming? Are they doing things that are negatively impacting them outside of what I'm doing?

Okay, so that, that's, that's right on. You said it. You know, that's. There was a guy named Jack Blatherwick. They called him Cardiac Jack. He was the US Olympic exercise physiologist. So I worked with him. And Howie Wangner, who was a Canadian, he worked with the New York Rangers. And you said the same thing that both of, both of the gentlemen said. They said that everything we do is from the neck down, and it's good. I know you focus on the mind. You have that life coaching background, but that's true. They study people from the neck down just like you do. And I think that's such an important part. So what are your words of encouragement to these young athletes? Because they always want to get better. They're always looking for that edge. So what's the words of encouragement that we could use with the young athlete that's out there that wants to get to that next level?

I believe wholeheartedly, from what I've seen in. In my business in over 16 years, and the scholarships that these athletes have received and the looks that they've gotten from coaches and their choices and their ability to be able to maneuver through, you know, going to a D1, D2, D3 school, it's about really. It's about tenacity. It's about really looking at everything and saying, what can I do to be better? And then actually hiring the professionals and doing it. That's really the biggest key. The student athletes who do best with me have an open mind and they understand that their body and fueling their body, as well as recovering their body are super important components. And having a really good stretching routine that they do, that's dynamic, meaning that it's not the same every single day and it's not the same over time.

Right.

And really honing in on those pieces and understanding their bodies, it's a lot easier for them to recover more quickly because they understand what's going on, but being really tenacious with that.

Yeah, I think that people should really. You said that word a bunch of times is recovery. And that's what it's all about. It's like, you know, I know, you know, we have mutual friends, relationships that are soccer players and I used to tell people that if you play a whole soccer game then you come off, you're going to be tired, not going to recover. That's why it's all about recovery. And I have another soccer line. It's all about goals. You talk a lot about shooting for goals. And imagine if you take the soccer nets away, there's nothing to shoot for. There are no goals.

Exactly.

So I love the fact that you have goals. I have to bring up another topic which I wish I had this as an athlete, I know you started in yoga and I can't say I do a yoga stretch. I follow your program, you sent me your program and it's great. So I do these different stretches. Now more than anything, I wish I did it as a player. Tell me about your yoga because I love. I'm starting to really enjoy yoga in movements where years ago, like again, athletes just think, well, I'm gonna, you know, do my training program. It's essential that they do a stretching program along with some sort of yoga work. You agree?

Yeah, absolutely. So I. One of the schools of thought and one of the challenges in our current society is that people think that they have to go do an hour and a half class to say that they've done yoga. Nothing could be further from the truth. So I incorporate it personally as part of my workout. So either pre post or both, I have what I'll call my mini little flows and they're like four to six minutes. And I, I mean I'm kind of kooky this way. I periodize it based on what I'm working that day. So if I have a leg workout then I'm going to do a lot of hip, hamstring, quadricep ankle mobility work prior to getting in. If I'm doing an upper body workout, I'm going to do more of it. Depends. If I'm working posterior anterior chain, I'm going to work that chain. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to mirror some of the movement patterns that I'm going to work out. So that's how I've learned to incorporate yoga into an athletic paradigm. For me personally, people can do it however they choose to. I look at yoga more as the fluid flow and movement and static postures that are more traditional. I like combining those with more fitness oriented stuff. And so the yoga teaching that I've done has evolved from 90 minute classes and I used to teach hot yoga and I've taught all different versions of it to now being part and parcel of what it is that I do. So that's really how I'm viewing the word. Yoga is more incorporated and more indoctrinated into my workouts than it is a standalone and a separate. Now, breath work is super important, and I use my breath work and I teach my clients to use it inside of the flow practice and inside of their workouts, also as a standalone for stress reduction as well as for increasing energy. And so in my program, I incorporate pieces of breathwork to teach people very simple techniques. And so again, I want to stress that you don't need to be flexible. You don't need to already be good at it. People come to me all the time. You know, I'm so inflexible. I don't know how to do anything. I hate yoga. What they hate is the fact that their body can't go into those shapes. That's what they really hate. And so if you can figure out a way to be able to create the same form, but maybe let it be a little different and let it be unique and individual to each person, everyone can do it.

That's awesome. So I have to ask you, you know, every Wednesday, I would play hockey with these guys were in the Secret Service, FBI, firemen, firefighter, I mean firefighters, the policemen. And I told one of them today, I said, I'm going to be doing show with a friend who's really big into the stretching and elongation. And they said, well, how do I, you know, Please tell us about your online program so we could share it with them. I know a lot about it, but I want you to share. And how can somebody get in touch with the stretch lady? Because in this, with everything that's going on with the pandemic and this, real people are at home. There's nothing better than an online training. So please share your online training.

Absolutely.

The videos are unbelievable. Thank you. I mean, professionally done, it's great. So for my athletes, for athletes and moms and everybody out there, please share with us about the stretch lady.

Absolutely. Thank you. So I have an online program, it's called the Stretch Lady. And I am offering everyone who's watching this a code. The Stretch lady is the code. And that gives you $20 off the program. And the program is literally everything that I've been doing for the past 16 years put together in short video formats. It's got all the major parts of the body. It's got assessments, corrective exercises on both the dynamic and static ends. So just quickly, dynamic exercise, Dynamic stretching can be done pre or post workout static. Only post or far away from your workouts because you don't want to decrease your strength. And stretching your muscles for a long period of time can decrease the strength of them if they're done together with a workout. So just wanted to be clear on that. And it's also all over the videos and basically it's got an entire program. It's got over 41 videos. I have breath work, I have little mini flows. I've got all the pieces of the warmups put together. I call them warm ups or corrective exercises put together in a long video. So there's a 27 minute loop that you can pop on and do. There's no excuse during this period of time to not get better at something. And why not get better at stretching in my opinion? Is that the stretchlady.com thestretchlady.com and then all of the social media platforms. I'm the stretch lady. So I'm the stretch lady on Facebook, I'm the stretch lady on Instagram, and I post, you know, free videos and free information all the time. And I want to thank all of our first responders and the people who are out there in the front lines right now. It's an interesting time.

So I'm getting some questions. In one of them is Terry Darling. How about an old athlete that's still playing hockey five to six times a week at 74? Oh, you're young. 74. If you're playing hockey five to six times a Week, he's playing a lot longer than me. Please share like how we could help out. Terry.

Terry. So first of all, kudos. That's awesome. And that's a lot of hockey. So I can only imagine that probably hip flexors and groin are going to be two main areas that you're going to want to work more intensely than others. So my strong suggestion would be get the program and work hips and groin like there's no tomorrow and make sure that you're doing mobility work at least three to four times a week. And again, mobility work can be five, six minutes. It doesn't need to be a long period of time, but there's so much to be said for doing a little bit of stretching and I would suggest doing it before and after you play. I know that sounds like a lot, but the truth of the matter is, is those joints need that lubrication all of the time. So that would be a really, really helpful thing for you to add to your regimen to keep your longevity up and to Keep you playing as much as you want to play. But again, kudos. That's awesome. Thank you for the question.

Okay, we have another one. Simone. Does she prefer flow yoga, Vinyasa, or holding poses longer for optional stretching?

Such a great question. In all honesty, it is completely and totally dependent on the person, situation and goal. So when I say that some people have very, very, very, very active minds and for me to ask them to hold a posture and stay in it for any more than probably three to five breaths, they're not. It's not going to work for them. So for somebody who has a very overactive brain, starting them with Vinyasa is a really, really wonderful place to be. And then maybe within that, starting to get the holds, because the holds are really good for calming the fluctuations of the mind down. So that's where the life coaching and pieces come into it. As far as holding postures for a long period of time, I really only do that if I have somebody who has attention challenges. So I had a Rookie in the NBA come to me. This was about 15 years ago. He was a great player. And I watched him play. He played for our local team in Charlotte and he was having issues with injuries, so we worked with those. And then I said, and I was watching him play and he was very erratic on the court, couldn't pay attention. And so one day as part of our practice, I had him hold tree for five minutes. He wanted to throw blocks at me. He was angry with me. And then afterwards he said, why did you do that to me? And I said, you're an incredible player and your focus is not there. I said, how did it feel to hold that posture for five minutes? I said, we're going to do this until your focus gets so good that all you're doing is watching the ball and doing the things that you need to do and not looking around everywhere. It changed his game. He ended up having a very long career in the NBA. He. And he was very grateful for that experience. So that's where the long holds can come in. I personally like mixing it all up and having a little bit of Vinyasa, a little bit of the holds and a little bit of just basic movement patterns where you're holding it for three to five breaths, if that makes sense. And I hope that answers your question. But it really depends on the situation and the goal.

Well, I have another one. Megan Mather. Actually, I went to school with her in Michigan. So how can I improve my balance? I have done boot camp for 5 years and still my balance is awful.

Kudos for 5 years of boot camp. That's amazing. So your muscular endurance and your cardiovascular endurance probably pretty high. So working on balance, it can be as simple as when you're going to grab your morning cup of coffee standing on one leg.

Awesome.

And just three to five breaths and then doing the same thing on the other side. And what I would encourage you to do is see which way. If your foot pronates or supinates, see which way your foot has to move to stabilize you. Then you'll know where the instability is when you do that, then you can figure out if you need to work more on the inner arch of the foot or the outer arch of the foot, if that makes sense. And what you can do is start and pretending this is your foot is lifting up the toes up and down and just starting with that as a balancing tool and then rolling back, kind of sitting in a chair position, rolling backwards and forwards. So that single leg and then like a moving chair, those two are going to be really good for you from a balance perspective. Balance is key. But if you're doing boot camp and you're getting all the endurance and all of the muscular aspects out of it, then just try literally standing on one leg and doing that backwards and forwards, rocking motion. And you can, if this doesn't make sense, go ahead and shoot me a DM on any of the social media platforms and I'll shoot a quick little video for you because it's a really great technique. Actually, the two are.

Allie, it was so great to have this. I think people really need this. Allie, the stretchlady.com thank you. Thanks again. This was great. I'm going to continue to use your program myself as I need to be more flexible. So great to have you and thanks again.

Thank you. I appreciate it very much.