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Adam welcomes Shayla McGrady, GM and personal trainer, at InForm Fitness. Shayla has been training people virtually long before the Covid-19 pandemic made it popular, and she was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to share her experience and expertise.
Now listened to in 100 countries, The InForm Fitness Podcast with Adam Zickerman is a presentation of InForm Fitness Studios, specializing in safe, efficient, High Intensity strength training.
Adam discusses the latest findings in the areas of exercise, nutrition and recovery with leading experts and scientists. We aim to debunk the popular misconceptions and urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness and to replace those sacred cows with scientific-based, up-to-the-minute information on a variety of subjects. The topics covered include exercise protocols and techniques, nutrition, sleep, recovery, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more.
Inform_McGrady Ep 68
Thu, 3/17 2:45PM � 25:52
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
workouts, shayla, equipment, people, virtual, exercise, wall, fitness, great, virtually, lateral raise, clients, stand, training, podcast, trainers, gym, intensity, distancing, challenges
Arlene 00:01
The Inform Fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman and co host Mike Rogers is a presentation of informed fitness studios, a small family of personal training facilities specializing in safe, efficient high intensity strength training. On our BI monthly podcast, Adam and Mike discuss the latest findings in the areas of exercise nutrition and recovery with leading experts and scientists, we aim to debunk the popular misconceptions in the urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness, and to replace those sacred cows with scientific base. up to the minute information on a variety of subjects will cover exercise protocols and techniques, nutrition, sleep recovery, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more. In this episode, Adam welcomes Shayla McGrady GM and personal trainer at Inform Fitness. Shayla has been training people virtually long before the COVID 19 pandemic made it popular they'll discuss the three most challenging aspects of virtual training, technology, equipment and intensity.
Shayla 01:18
We understand that everyone is different. So what will be intense for one person may not be for another we know how to adjust that accordingly. That is what is important about us and how we work with our time.
Adam 01:33
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Inform fitness podcast. This is Adam Zickerman I'm here today with a special friend and guest Shayla McGrady Shayla has been a trainer in foreign fitness now for five years. And she runs the Port Washington location on Long Island. She's fantastic. Great personality one of the most authentic people I know. Welcome to the show Shayla.
Shayla 01:57
Hi, Adam, thank you so much for having me.
Adam 01:59
Let me just read off your credentials here. Shayla has earned her master's in Human Service Administration and her bachelor's degree in psychology from SUNY Buffalo up in upstate New York. She is a certified personal trainer by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. And she has the of course the power of 10 certification from me. Shayla jumped from another career right into personal training. She took the plunge joining in foreign fitness five years ago. She resigned from a full time career as a what what was your What were you doing?
Shayla 02:33
I was the Director of Residence Life at SUNY Downstate.
Adam 02:38
That's certainly downstate and is now enjoying her position as general manager in poor Washington Long Island. Shayla truly, truly understands the pressure society places on men and women when it comes to body image. And she once upon a time for to keep up with those demands. She now places an even greater emphasis on the importance of health lifestyle, both for herself and all that she meets. Like I said before, she's probably one of the most authentic people I know. So what you see is what you get with Shayla. And we're going to talk about something that's kind of relevant today. Given the COVID 19 pandemic and shutdowns and how it's changed the fitness world turned it pretty much upside down on its head. And we've been doing these virtual workouts and it's been for me it's been about eight weeks give or take but for Shayla and reason I wanted her on the show to talk about this, because she's been doing a lot longer than that she's been, you can say she's one of the pioneers in this virtual workout stuff. And training people virtually. So it's great to get her insights on this stuff. We're going to be talking about the challenges of virtual workouts are you going to get same workout as you would get using machines? Alright, Shayla virtual training, it's been a journey, you know, it's been a real learning experience for me, training people virtually. And I like it. I don't like it, to be honest with you. There are challenges, right? There are lots of challenges. Let's talk about those challenges. First of all, I don't wanna I don't wanna make it sound like I'm already kind of Debbie downer, right? Just put, I just said like, I actually love it in the sense that it enables us to do we have a lot of flexibility with this, and you are getting good workouts, but there are challenges, particularly with people that don't have any equipment. So that's one of the things so when we try to convert our clients to, to working out virtually when the shutdowns occurred, people very skeptical because he said, I don't have any equipment. And the other thing is I want to talk about specifically, are older people that don't have equipment, so they have their own set of challenges. Number one, being older having the arthritis and all the irises and not having equipment. So let's talk about how do you meet those challenges and how can you assure somebody that it's okay.
Shayla 04:55
Well, you're absolutely correct. Those are The challenges a lot of people face old and young, I wouldn't even say it is specific only to the elderly. But my way of encouraging clients who are skeptical, or who are nervous about how this works, and it will work well is by explaining it to them. So first equipment, right, all that they need is a telephone, a cell phone, an iPad or computer, they do not need a lot of appliances, they do not need a lot of equipment to do to make this work.
Adam 05:44
So they don't need like a mixing board. Like I
Shayla 05:48
don't need a fridge, no.
Adam 05:53
Headphones per se,
Shayla 05:54
you don't need headphones per se down. Especially if you're in you're at home, you're not on out on the beach, the waves. So keeping it very simple in regards to equipment and letting them know that it does not require a lot.
Adam 06:09
And you don't need to be a millennial or younger. As far as understanding the technology. It's technology is pretty easy. We're using Facebook or or zoom,
Shayla 06:18
we're using FaceTime or zoom. This book. That's okay, or Skype. So Skype, Facetime, zoom, I guess Facebook could work in some ways. Those are the three main devices on
Adam 06:32
Zoom. And what's the third? Skype? Oh, Skype, of course. Okay. So if you have any skepticism regarding equipment, get over it. There's not a lot of equipment. from a technology standpoint, that should not be a barrier to entry to join virtual workouts. If you own a cell phone, an up to date cell phone, more or less, you have access to virtual training, I would say that, and I mentioned this in the past on another pocket, I don't know if I did it on our podcast or as a guest on somebody else's anyway, a tripod, a little mini tripod for your cell phone, because you end up trying to balance it on something to get the right angle, because that's that's, I guess the next challenge, I want to talk to you about setting it up like so they see you like you said it's not a mirror, I think.
Shayla 07:17
Right? Right, because people stand in front of it, and they want to see themselves and don't take into account that I need, we need to see them as the instructor. So honestly, when I tell people to set up their phone or their computer, I suggest that they place it lower, so that I'm able to see them from head to toe, I also suggest that they stand between six to eight feet away, the farther away you are, the more I'm able to see you entirely
Adam 07:49
and more depth for sure. And again, mini tripod works beautiful for that. I mean, it's literally like you can buy one on Amazon for 12 bucks. Or you can just stand it up low on the ground and you can put it in angle you need and you're not balancing on a wall or a book or whatever, right? It doesn't slip and fall off. Because a lot of times not enough friction below it to kind of keep it up, you know, so these little mini tripods are a great asset, especially when you're just using a phone. Now the other thing that's good is a laptop. Because you can you can tilt the laptop, you know, the top of the laptop up and down, you can put the laptop on the floor. And until that as you need it depending upon what you're doing, then we can see them perfectly.
Shayla 08:29
Absolutely.
Adam 08:30
The other challenge for older people, particularly older people is that they don't have any equipment. And you know, being where we are in New York City, a lot of our clients, New York City, they have small apartments and they don't want equipment collecting dust in their farm. And that's why they come to us in the first place. So how do you especially an older person, because you know, one of the reasons all the people gravitate in for fitness is because we have such great equipment and we don't exacerbate a lot of injuries and they can do things that they they would really have would have trouble doing with body weight or maybe they have a severe weakness. So you know, they can't really support themselves in a lot of ways. And the equipment kind of is just a great workaround for people that have arthritic issues, orthopedic issues, weight issues, quite honestly, weakness, issues, asymmetry, one side being, you know, weaker than the other equipment helps with that aspect to an extent. So how do you work around that without any equipment? Virtually?
Shayla 09:23
Great question. And that's the thing. There are no substitutions for the weights that we have at inform of course, but in regards to working out at home, without equipment, I trained many clients who do not have equipment, many clients who are of elderly age, and what I like to do is utilize furniture, so chairs, being able to do squats on a chair seated, coming up and down so that way you're using your proper form. Also, balancing on a chair so placing on the side of you while you're doing lunch. One foot behind the other, just to maintain that balance,
Adam 10:04
right, so you're doing the ones but you have the chair right there by your side. So you can just use your hands, this is a balance you as you, you hold that position, and you don't have to go that low, as long as either you can go down a little bit, a little bit goes a long way you've been that knee or your thighs kick in, you're right, your your glutes, your hamstrings, they kick in, you don't have to go into these deep knee bends. Right. And again, you can use that chair for balance, I'm sorry, cut into jack there.
Shayla 10:28
No, that's okay. That's that's a great key point, as well as the wall. So using the wall for stabilizing squats, just holding a squat against the wall. And some of the other things that I use for makeshift equipment, water gallons water bottles. I know you mentioned when we were talking of using recyclable bags and filling them with books, filling them with raw.
Adam 10:58
Yeah, I thought that because it becomes an adjustable dumbbell. Right, instead of switching off between a water jug which you know the handles of water and you buy a gallon of water, you know, I've used those, it has a small little handle, your fingers get all cramped up and cramped in there. And when you do curls, that kind of torques your wrist and torques your fingers, right. And you know, it's not a greatest handle. So it occurred to me just to put the water jug into one of those small totes or recycle bags that you get at the supermarket. And now not only can you put that water jug in there, but now if you need more weight, you can add soup cans, like you said books. I never thought of books. That's a good idea. Because books, books have weight, you know, right textbooks, you know, I've kind of those laying around in my basement, you know? So that's great. Yeah. And you said using the wall, there you go. I mean, you can do a lot against the wall. What can you do again, like whatever exercise you're doing against the wall.
Shayla 11:52
So you can again, you can do chair squat or wall squats, you can squat against the wall, right? You can use what I do for gallon jugs, because they are oddly shaped. I'll have clients hold one gallon in both hands, and stand against the wall while they're doing bicep curls simultaneously. Curls. Also doing shoulder overhead shoulder press.
Adam 12:16
So you lean so you're doing overhead press using the wall? Correct some for some clients,
Shayla 12:20
and why is it stabilizing them and firing up those quads? Well, they're against the wall, quads, hamstrings,
Adam 12:32
quad shoulder press doing shoulder press against the wall. That's what I was asking about.
Shayla 12:36
But I'll have them if I want to intensify it, I'll have them in a squat against the wall, right holding it and doing shoulder. Because otherwise they can just do it in the chair?
Adam 12:45
No, well, you bring up a good point, part of the challenge I found with virtual training, and not having a lot of equipment is getting the intensity we need. We've, you know, my whole show, over the last three years has been about high intensity training, right? And understanding that and here we are doing the virtual workouts, we still have to maintain that that's the key always to maintain that intensity when you have no equipment. And you have somebody that can't do a bodyweight exercise on the floor or something like that the wall becomes a huge asset, and allows that person to get intense. Yeah, push ups, push ups from the knees, if you can't, obviously can't do it from the toes or against
Shayla 13:23
the wall doing push ups also. So for some of the other clients standing and slowly doing push ups against the wall,
Adam 13:30
or push ups Exactly. Those are not nearly as intense as doing on the floor.
Shayla 13:36
But once you get into that holding, right, it intensifies it a little bit more
Adam 13:41
right to static hold. Yeah, so that means you hold a position, because some people have joint issues and they can't go through the range of motion anyway. Right. And if you're weak, it's tough to to do full range of motion sometimes like in a full pushup. That's why I use the wall that takes a lot of the force always these positions that you also you can't go that a full range of motion. So so having them hold a particular position, which is a difficult position and not moving through that position. I mean, there are trainers out there, there are protocols out there that just do what they call negative only, or static contractions as as a whole protocol to build strength without any movement whatsoever, because they feel it protects the joint. And it's not necessary to go through their range of motion. That's debatable. And it just gave me an idea to have some of those people on my podcast. Yeah. Because there are people that would debate that that they feel full range of motion exercises is better. And I actually know the person to have on my show, quite honestly for that. But if you can't go through full range of motion, you do get something out of these things. I mean, again, intensity is intensity, whether you're going through a full range of motion, or just holding a static hold against the wall until you're exhausted that's safe. You can you can work to exhaustion against the wall and as soon as you reach exhaustion, you just, you're still leaning against the wall. You're not going anywhere.
Shayla 14:58
And I think that's the important thing. about our program is we understand that everyone is different. So what will be intense for one person may not be for another, we know how to adjust that accordingly. You know, there are a lot of there are a lot of gyms or a lot of trainers that give me standard exercise across the board, and everyone is expected to do the same thing, and everyone is not able to do the same thing. So I think that is what is important about us and how we work with our clients.
Adam 15:33
Well, you know, a big difference is how we measure progress and success. And what you're saying is the conventional way has been always doing a certain number of reps and certain number of sets, regardless of the ability now just, they're arbitrary numbers, we're gauging intensity. And that's more nuanced than just, you know, do three sets of 10 of this weight. And when you're measuring intensity, you really do have to read the person and know what they're capable of, and know how to apply that safely. Now that gyms have been shut down, every Tom, Dick and Harry now have entered the virtual space of training. And that's how we're different, right? Absolutely, you know, safety first, always safety. First, there's positions like let's take the lateral raise, right, a classic exercise, raising your arms away from your sides, it works your shoulders, your deltoids to conventional as a standing deltoid, raise lateral raise. Now, I'm not going to get into all the biomechanics of that. But when you do it that way, you are putting very heavy load on the shoulder, at a very weak position of that shoulder when you're at the top. And that's what it always hurts at the top, if ever did this exercise, it's very difficult at the top is almost painful, and it doesn't hurt throughout the rest of the range of motion. When you get to that very top, it's a painful thing, and has nothing to do with you being weak or not has to do is that it's biomechanically a strain. Everyone's doing that exercise. And then people wake up one day say, Why do my shoulders hurt me, and they never think it's their exercise program. You know, which is ironic, because your exercise program should not be hurting you and I've talked about this a million times in the past, you lay to your side, instead of standing up, you lay to your side and do the lateral raise, you've just corrected that whole problem. As simple as that. And I would venture to guess that not one, maybe five out of 100 trainers might know that great. Five out of 100 trainers maybe know if maybe how even say less. And there's so many little things like that. So not all virtual workouts are created equal even those highfalutin high tech programs that are out there. You know, I see the promos on TV for these these virtual workouts, you can do all kinds of workouts. And you see the problems, you see the actual exercises that they're doing. They're very ballistic, very high impact they're doing I see that lateral raise done the way I described as standing up loud raises all the time. You know, it's a clap. Again, it's a classic exercise, and it's always demoed in the advertisements. It's fancy, and it's cool. And you have a workout in your house. And yeah, this is like Avatar training you possibly but it's all the same stuff. It's just packaged differently. Right? And it's what we've been working towards and against near, in my case, 23 years, you know, 10 years, and then fine with us. There's a lot of crap out there like, like every industry, I guess, doing these virtual workouts is even extra you need, you need extra expertise, because you don't have the luxury of a piece of equipment do the work for you. Right, you really have to know what you're doing when you're training somebody virtually, with the challenges that we've talked about. Do you think virtual workouts are here to stay now that this has happened?
Shayla 18:39
I do. I absolutely do. I think this is a sign of the times, definitely. And very telling as to how we are heading into the future.
Adam 18:51
We have clients that were doing an in person and then they started the virtuals because of the shutdowns and everything and then like saying, you know, let's keep it this way. Some of the pros, you know, in some cases, the pros outweigh the cons. I've had a couple,
Shayla 19:05
I have had some and and especially right now, I mean, it's still so fresh with a pandemic and a lot of people are are nervous and comfortable in this setting. But I think that there are going to be a lot of people a lot more people who will choose to go the virtual route than rushing to get back into a typical gym.
Adam 19:26
Yeah, well they want to be assured that the precautions are being taken at the locations right you know, I'm I'm in constant communication now when my landlords to make sure that the public areas in our building are going to be met with stringent attention, doing my research and what we're doing in our gyms. And they want to be reassured about that. Turns out that more science comes out about how you contract the virus. This particular one is through sustained exposure in unventilated space, without And that is how it's being transmitted. There's very little evidence, for example, that's being transmitted from surfaces, the reports have been showing outdoors, but sustained. And a big point is sustained exposure, right? If you were in contact with somebody that actually has it and not coughing on you, and then wearing a mask, and you're only with him for 10 minutes, in a well ventilated place, the risk is extremely low. Right. And knowing that, and knowing that we're going to open up soon, we've taken those precautions. So the places are gonna be well ventilated, we're gonna have air filters, everyone's gonna be wearing masks, there's going to be physical distancing. By the way, I'm using that term physical distancing. Now, not social distancing. I learned that because somebody else said this. Because, you know, social distancing is kind of, well, we need social more than ever, now, is the point. And we shouldn't be distancing ourselves socially, we should be distancing ourselves physically, we should be getting, we should be getting closer, socially, if anything else, especially in this time, and we have a lot going on, as we record this podcast, it's during the protests, the police brutality and the crazy times we're living in, but so that's that's how we're going to take the little precautions were taking, you know, limiting the number of people working out at the same time, well ventilated, and wearing masks, and the rest is gonna be drastically reduced that way.
Shayla 21:30
And I think for us, we people are going to come back, I don't think there's going to be as much of a hesitation to come back to our facilities, just because we're so different. Right? We are vastly different from we're not considered a gym, we're vastly different from that. So I don't think that we are going to pose as much of a hesitation complex. I think, though, reaching people who cannot easily get to information, people all over who are listening to this virtually is what is going to be heightened for us.
Adam 22:11
I agree. Thank you for bringing that up. I've been bringing it up on our podcast last couple episodes talking about how this opens up the door. I never thought about inviting people to call us for virtual workouts or world because the whole reason I opened up in forum fitness is because of the the equipment and the attention and the detail that we pay attention to what you just can't get from virtual workout. So I kind of had this like this all or nothing thing about that. Yeah, I had this block about that. So I never thought of actually offering this workout virtually because you don't have our access to everything that we have. But then I'm realizing since doing those virtuals, that we're still doing it so much better and differently than everyone else would do a virtual and we just talked about that. So yeah, for you listening that don't have access to a gym, I'm telling you do a workout with regular weights with no weights, you won't believe how different it is compared to Tom, Dick or Harry putting you through it that that just went virtual. There's a lot to this. And there's a reason why our equipment does what it does. Because we spent so many years not having that equipment, no, and we saw the problems. You know, and we know how to we knew how to kind of overcome the problems. So we know what the problems are to deal with when we're training you virtually. And that makes a big difference in the quality and the efficiency and the safety of the workout. And again, it's also efficiency, getting your heart rate up in and of itself is not is not the point it's fatiguing the muscles deeply, and you're not going to have the same. Alright, listen, you workout in form fitness. It's like flying in a private jet. You know, if you're invited to ever fly on a private jet, take it. Take the invitation, I don't care where you're going, you can even be Cleveland you know. And once you try that, and then you have to take your next flight and coach, it's like oh my god, you know, but Coach still gets you there, right. And the Virgin workouts even better than codes were like more like business class or virtual workouts because we know what we're doing. So you learn so much the principles of why we do and how we do what we do really bear themselves out. When you're doing something virtually you don't have all this fancy equipment, doing all that work for you. You know, so you really learn something about well, just that lateral raise example, perfect example of a simple tweak that you do to to conventional exercise that makes all the difference in the world. We're going to post that one. We're going to we're going to do a video linking that. We're also going to put a video linking some of the things you brought up before like a squat a wall squat. Alright, and we'll do one with a chair bouncing on the chair. Made me what we're gonna do. She'll it please tell me if you can do this with me. We'll do a We're going to do a video of a workout that an older person can do a full body workout that an older person can do that have issues that that definitely get something out of it. Can we do something like that? Absolutely. Alright, so we have by the time you're hearing this, it's, it's already linked to our podcast. Okay. Alright, so go to it. Well, thanks a lot. This was great. I appreciate you helping me out with this.
Shayla 25:22
No problem. Thank you for having me.
Arlene 25:25
This has been the Inform Fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman. for over 20 years informed fitness has been providing clients of all ages with customized personal training designed to build strength fast. Visit InformFitness.com for testimonials, blogs and videos on the three pillars, exercise, nutrition and recovery
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