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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello? Hello? Oh, I haven't changed my background. Hang on. Am I I'll I'll be back in one sec.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Look. Now it's haircut.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Do know what's crazy? Is that you have to put it on backwards?
Speaker 2:Oh, you're fixing the flip.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's really interesting. How's your day?
Speaker 2:It was good. Thank you. How about you?
Speaker 1:Just had back to back to back to back meetings. Oh. And one meeting, forgot who I was talking to. And I he was like, so what so let's start with your thoughts. And I was like, can we just rewind?
Speaker 2:What are my thoughts? What are we talking about?
Speaker 1:Good afternoon, everybody. We'll give people a few minutes to well, it hasn't even started officially yet. Last time I put, music on it, I don't know if it heard it sounded very good, but I was having, like, a little party while I waited for everyone to join.
Speaker 2:The big question is what music was it? What were we vibing to?
Speaker 1:Fight by piece. Let's get it started. You know? Classic. Hi.
Speaker 1:Getting in the mood. Let me pull out Alex. Where are we? Okay. Hello.
Speaker 1:Yeah. At least the weather's nice today. I hope it's been nice for you.
Speaker 2:I know. It's gonna get even warmer as well, which I'm very excited for.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay. Did summer officially start? Do you know?
Speaker 2:I think now. I think bank holiday. The second bank holiday is the official start of summer in my opinion.
Speaker 1:That's fair. That is fair. I could do it some more. I wanna get those those legs I've been training up.
Speaker 2:Yes. That's what we want.
Speaker 1:All that muscle mass we're building.
Speaker 2:We need to get it out. We need to show it off over summer. That's for sure.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Short term.
Speaker 1:Building your summer body over winter. I think I built my winter body for summer as well, but it's fine.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful body. It's good all year round thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I slept with it year round, so I might as well embrace it.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:This is the lesson for me on how timely people can be.
Speaker 2:I yes. I'm quite impressed, actually. I think every time I've done, like, a Zoom meeting, it's always yeah. I'm very impressed.
Speaker 1:There's another one. Hi, Dina. Hi, Kim. Catherine, DB, Abby, Linda, Erin. These are the ones I can see.
Speaker 1:A few now more than my screen will fit. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hi, everyone.
Speaker 1:I like that Catherine's a giraffe. Catherine, if you don't know what I'm talking about, your profile picture is a giraffe. Alright. Getting something going. Have you had dinner yet?
Speaker 2:Me? Yeah. No. Not me. I was like, I'll wait till after because my Chris, my husband will be home.
Speaker 2:So I was like, we'll wait. I was like, don't make any noise when you come into the house because we'll be on a call, but we'll eat dinner after. Hi, everyone. Hi, Abby. Hi, Catherine.
Speaker 1:This is awesome. Good turnout, guys. Yeah. I waited a little bit longer just because give people a few minutes to finish what they're doing and join us. And then this is also recorded, so people will listen back on Zoom sorry, on the podcast that Scott mentioned.
Speaker 1:Actually, while we're here in the chat, I'm gonna put your oops. Let me look it up. Do want me to try? I've got it. Missus Zoe Max.
Speaker 1:That's me. So if anyone wants to follow Zoe on Instagram, I just put her handle in the chat. She has loads of good advice that makes me laugh a lot. Not the advice. The advice is great, but also Yes.
Speaker 1:A little bit.
Speaker 2:Some questionable acting skills as well for the reels if anyone fancies a laugh.
Speaker 1:They look great. This look great. Hi, everyone. One more minute, and then I'll get cracking. This is where we need waiting music.
Speaker 1:Do you sound like elevator music? Yeah. I'd sing, but then everyone would log after whenever we could talk to. I had a funny call today where a woman was walking as she was on screen and, someone said, oh, you on a trek walking pad or treadmill, whatever you call it? And she goes, oh, no.
Speaker 1:I didn't think anyone could tell. And then she, like, sunk down and held onto the desk, and it was, like, trying to hold herself steady as she flew. Really,
Speaker 3:very heavy.
Speaker 2:Should encourage the walking pads. I think that's if you're working from home and, like, you have, like, a sandy desk, it's such a good good thing if you're not able to get out and about.
Speaker 1:I think we should encourage it. Like
Speaker 2:Yeah. Either way, you get, like, a little bob, don't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. A little
Speaker 2:little bob.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's neat. Yeah. Alright. I'll give it one more probably thirty more seconds, and then Yeah. Get off.
Speaker 1:So Parrot Power is off to Manchester tomorrow. We've been named in the top 20 tech innovations in The UK. So thank you everybody here for being awesome, members and, Turtle as well. Same same company. Very exciting.
Speaker 1:We've got some of the best technology in the world, and getting recognized that is so exciting.
Speaker 2:That's so exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It really is. You know, you know, a little cold, I think. It might be quite cold up north. That's what I imagine anyway.
Speaker 1:Although, I thought Manchester was much closer to Newcastle than than it is. Same Midlands as a as a immigrant to The UK. I know it's north.
Speaker 2:No. No. No. Manchester is is very north, and it will be about always about three degrees colder, I think, up north. But as a as a Cambridge born and bred, I am very sensitive to it.
Speaker 1:Alright. Let's kick it up. Okay. So, everybody, I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you all to Zoe. Zoe is a world champion and British champion in pro bikini bodybuilding, which sounds absolutely extraordinary, and it truly is.
Speaker 1:But here's what also will matter to you all. She will be the first to tell you that she was, not a lover of PE at school, had no interest in sport, and it wasn't until she walked into a gym at university that everything changed for her. This experience has shaped how she coaches. She's here because she knows exactly what it feels like to start from scratch and to find slowly that this stuff can actually work for you. But also, we have the benefit that she's a world champion at what she does so you can have a a good idea of her work ethic, her knowledge that she takes to be a champion.
Speaker 1:So brilliant on all accounts. Mhmm. What makes Zoe generally different is her background. She holds an in science psychology from the University of Birmingham. And I can tell you because I train with Zoe that she brings that wisdom into every single session.
Speaker 1:She's gonna help us understand what why we stop training, what gets in the way, how to build something that's really workable, And she's a level three personal trainer. She's qualified in pre and postnatal coaching, and she's been working with clients for ten years and is really an extraordinary coach, and we're very lucky to have her. So welcome, Zoe.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you very much. And it's lovely to be involved and to, meet some of you guys virtually. I've heard so much about TESOL and PARROT through Jax, and I'm really, really honored to be able to share some of that knowledge with you guys. So I think for me, what I'd love to do is kind of get into some of the basics of training with you all and open it up to see if there is anything that anyone has particularly struggled with from my understanding of coming into these plans that you've all got and see if there's anything that you're confused about or struggling with or anything like that.
Speaker 2:And we can kind of go through some of the stuff there for you all as well. So anything that you want me to ask, answer specifically, please feel free to pop it in the chat and and we can go from there, really. Perfect. So I wanted to just kind of start with a little bit of information just around the gym in general and how we can kinda get the most out of it, if that is alright with everybody there. Yep.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Okay. Fab. So I think the gym is one of those things where it is such an intimidating place to come into, and I definitely know I can see we've got majority women on the call. And I think especially as a woman, it can be a particularly scary place to kind of set your foot into.
Speaker 2:And dipping your toe into exercise in general, even if you're not necessarily going into a gym can be quite intimidating. And I think that can mean that perhaps we shy away from, you know, training hard or pushing ourselves in the same way. We have a definite fear as well. Especially if you're someone like me who came into exercise and sport a little bit later on in life and not something that I particularly did as I was younger until I really didn't like it. So you're not quite, I feel like you kind of you grow out of that and you develop the fear essentially a little bit.
Speaker 2:So I want you to kind of dig into that a little bit as well and go from there. So the first thing that I would perhaps like to talk about is a concept called progressive overload. And I'm not sure how many of you have heard of this or have kind of any information on this at all. No. A little bit.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's great. So I'll go over some of the basics of it. And and this is something that you can implement in your training straight off the bat. Now progressive overload is gonna form the fundamentals of everything you're gonna do in the gym.
Speaker 2:So you'll all have your plan and you've got your sessions that you're gonna come in to do every week. Now it's all very well and good going in and doing that. But if we're not pushing ourselves in a way to progress, then you'll find very, very quickly those results are gonna plateau. And I know that you're all pretty pretty dedicated to this and we all wanna see the results that we're after. So we definitely do not wanna get that plateau there at all.
Speaker 2:So that's where progressive overload is going to come into this. So essentially, if we break this down, it means every time we come into the gym to do our plan, we're gonna try and push ourselves just a little bit more and kind of work a little bit harder and see how we
Speaker 1:go from there. And I could do one thing at a time. Shut it. Honestly.
Speaker 2:Sorry. Was not happy. What might that look like for you? So there's a few things we can do this. So we'll all be hopefully using some of the weights in our plan.
Speaker 2:Are we all kind of pretty happy with that, you know, going from there? Amazing. So the obvious one and the one that everyone thinks of is increasing the weight. So that's a really easy way to progress our lifts and progress our strength and help build that muscle, which we're all after. We need a lot of muscle to help, you know, with all of these health benefits that is coming out nowadays.
Speaker 2:So the first thing that we can do is progress the weight. Now that goes without saying we're trying to get a little bit stronger. We're trying to lift a little bit heavier. But if we perhaps can't push that weight up anymore, the next thing we might want to do is increase the reps. So you'll have a set of or your number of reps, and we're just gonna try and maybe do one or two extra reps on there as well.
Speaker 2:So for example, if we take a squat and say we're squatting 20 kilograms and we manage eight reps at that, next week, we might either try and go 20 kilograms for nine or 20 kilograms for 10. And then once we've hit that point, we might look to increase that weight, even if it's just by, you know, going up to 22 kilograms or something like that. So it's just very small progress over time. That can continue up to a point where you might not feel like actually you're able to do anymore. And then we might look to progress the form.
Speaker 2:So we might look to do it a little bit better, or we might look to progress the tempo. So we might look to do it a little bit slower. So there's all these ways that you can kind of progress your exercises and keep working in the gym. So that is probably the biggest thing that I would encourage you all to do and kind of go from there. So if we kind of take a little bit pause there and just see if there are any questions or anything that anybody wants me to kind of go into it in a little bit more detail of that point.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I have a question, Zoe. If some of our members are working at home and they're, say, doing dips on the couch or squats by the kettle, what are some ways we can do progressive overloading in that kind of scenario?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So that's a really great question and also so relevant when we've not all got time to go to the gym multiple times a week, if at all. So if you are doing home workouts or workouts that are primarily gonna be using your body weight, what I'd encourage you to do is to use tempo to progress. So we can use reps as well. So, for example, if you're doing ten ten dips off the sofa, and next time we're going for 12 to 15, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:But at that point, there's probably only so many you can do. And before it one starts to get very long and also very boring, and we kind of wanna kind of shy away from that a little bit. So what I'd say for that is to use the tempo. So this is gonna be how slowly you do the exercise. So I don't know if anyone has tried to do dips or squats really, really slowly as opposed to really quickly, and it's much harder to do it slowly.
Speaker 2:That is because what we're doing is keeping the muscle under tension for a lot longer. And by doing that, we're breaking it down a little bit more and challenging it in a slightly different way. So to increase that way, if we are doing home workouts per se, I'd say slow it right down and maybe pause at the bottom. So you're holding that position at the bottom before you come up into your next rep just to make it a little bit more challenging. Okay.
Speaker 2:And so that is also so I was just seeing your question there as well about the five kilogram dumbbells. So completely exactly the same. So I would add in slower reps and I would add in like pauses at the bottom just to make sure that you are kind of getting the most out of that exercise there. The other thing you can do if you've got a very limited amount of weight at home is to superset some of the exercises together to make them more challenging in that way. So for example, if you're doing some lower body workouts and you've only got your five kilogram dumbbell, if you're doing your squats and you're doing them nice and slow and nice and controlled, and then you're super setting them with your lunges, which work a very similar muscle group, you're going to find those lunges much, much harder if you are doing them together with the squat as opposed to taking a rest between those two exercises.
Speaker 2:And so I hope that's answered that one there. And so as well, Debbie, coming into your question here about DOMS. Absolutely feel that pain. Reverse lunges are the absolute worst in for causing DOMS. I think Jax can also attest for that.
Speaker 2:There's many a time she's coming with very achy legs after lunges, and they are by far one of the least favorite exercises, I think, for everybody. So completely fine to train if you do have DOMS provided you have had a rest day in between your workouts. So if you're doing, say, a leg workout and you've got really sore legs, you have 24 off as a minimum and then maybe go into another workout a couple of days later. Even if you are still a little bit achy, it is completely fine and completely safe to train. I would encourage you to just do a little bit maybe of a longer warm up just to kind of get the blood flow through those legs before you go into doing a little bit more weighted work.
Speaker 2:But you're not going do yourself any damage. In fact, sometimes getting the blood running through them and doing a little bit of training actually helps it feel better the next day. So you're not gonna do any damage or any kind of like ill effect by training with DOMS. But Friday, you've had the rest day in between. So moving on to the next one from Catherine.
Speaker 2:Is it okay to add resistance bands to the barbell while the arms catch up with the legs or change the weights? Do you mean just to adjust to increase the weight there at home? Is that a home setup you've got in terms of like adding the resistance bands onto the bar? If so, yep, it's another way of adding that tension on. You might find if you've added the resistance bands to the barbell, it's gonna change the pro the strength profile and resistance profile of the exercise.
Speaker 2:So it might feel hard in a slightly different way, but it's a good way of doing it to increase that as you catch up if the weight change is a little bit different. If you've got the weights to just add the weights on, I'd probably say that's a better option. But if you're kind of in between and you just need a little stepping stone, it's a good way to do it.
Speaker 1:Cool. Throwing a thumbs up for answering the question. Okay.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm gonna move on ever so slightly.
Speaker 2:Obviously, if anything else comes up, just pop it in the chat for us there. And so the thing I wanna talk about, which leads really nicely into this, is how to know when to put the weights up as well, because I think that can be a real common thing of not really knowing when you should be increasing that difficulty on your exercises. And, you know, I think there's definitely something that people can feel a little bit of confusion about. So I thought I wanted to dig into that a little bit there as well. So what we can do on this and what I really like to do with my clients is use something called a rate of perceived exertion or an RPE scale.
Speaker 2:So this, in really, really basic terms and a really easy way to think about it, is a scale from one up to 10 with 10 being absolute failure. I could not possibly do another rep. And one being, this is very easy. I could do this all day. So what we're trying to do here is and what I'd encourage everybody to do while they're doing their training sessions is to start thinking about how hard and how challenging you're finding those exercises along that scale.
Speaker 2:So it might be that you're kind of going in, oh, actually that was relatively easy. Maybe like a four or five. I could probably do a couple more. It didn't feel too challenging at all, somewhere in the middle. If you are kind of getting yourself up to the higher end of the scale, that's where I'd like us to be working out.
Speaker 2:So if we are using that scale and we're using our RPU scale, if we're getting to maybe a seven, eight or a nine, we're in a really good spot. And I'd say that's probably the correct weight for us to be using. And that basically means we could maybe do one or two more reps with good form. That's the sweet spot. That's where we wanna be.
Speaker 2:If we get into that kind of 10 failure, it's not gonna do you any harm. It's not a bad place to be. It's just that kind of like that little extra one where we're like, okay, maybe we could do one more. That's our sweet spot with where we want to be. Now, if you're finishing your set on your workout and you're getting to the point where you think, actually, I could easily do five more of those.
Speaker 2:I didn't really feel too challenging. Then I would encourage kind of adding a little bit of extra weight on or slowing it down or increasing that tempo in if it is a home workout that we spoke about before. So that would be kind of where I'd encourage us to increase the rep there. That being said, if we get into the end of that set and we feel like our form is broken, we're not doing the exercise very well, we're feeling like we're feeling it in all the wrong places, I'd say definitely worth staying at the weight that you're on and not pushing it too quickly up way that way. We want to be moving the weight with the muscles that we wanna work versus just moving it from a to b, And that's something called mind muscle connection.
Speaker 2:Has anybody heard of that one before at all? Yeah. We've got a few nods, which is nice. Okay. Amazing.
Speaker 2:So with that mind muscle connection, if you are training in your workouts and you're maybe not feeling it, glutes is a really good one. I'm gonna pick that one up because that's normally one where people do struggle to connect with. Say we are doing something that is glute based, like a glute bridge or a hip thrust, and we're not really feeling it in our glutes, we can't connect with that muscle. We might be a sign that we've gone slightly too heavy. We might wanna bring that weight down a little bit and slow it down so we're still keeping that muscle connection there for you.
Speaker 2:Beautiful.
Speaker 1:So I have a question on that, which is if some days you turn up and you feel really strong and that's at your normal level and then one day you turn up and you're not feeling so strong is it okay to drop is it still beneficial to drop your weight for that session and do the movement properly, or are you better to try to persist and keep the weight the same as always? That is
Speaker 2:a really good question, and I think it can come into why you're not feeling particularly strong on that given day. If, say, we had a really tough day at work, we haven't slept very well, maybe we stayed up really late and not got our hours sleep and we're feeling like a little bit tired, sluggish and lethargic and that's impacting how we're feeling, I would say go to how you're feeling in that day because you're you don't want to increase risk of injury, so on and so forth. Sometimes we find when we start getting into the exercises again, we can push a little bit more, especially as we're a little bit warmed up through warmed up through the session as well. But I think you need to trust your body. If you go into your workout and you're feeling like, this isn't feeling good today.
Speaker 2:I am feeling really tired. I'm not feeling my best self. I perhaps don't want to push as hard. I might aim for, say, definitely trying to hit what I did last time, but maybe one or two less reps on that particular exercise as opposed to bringing the weight down. However, if you go in with that weight and it really doesn't feel good, it feels wrong or you feel it not in the right places like we just mentioned, I'd say bringing it down just by a couple of kilos just for that one session, if that feels a little bit better, is definitely the way to go.
Speaker 2:I think especially there can be a lot of factors that can influence training in that way. And going off how you're feeling is a really good gauge there too. Perfect. Amazing. Are there any more questions on anything like that at all?
Speaker 2:No. So one way and I just wanna go and bring back to that mind loss connection. It definitely is mad that you can feel it in that way. And just a couple of ways of improving that if someone is struggling with it at all. So one thing we can do, which is a bit weird and does work, is to touch the muscle you're working.
Speaker 2:So if you are kind of like trying to squeeze in a particular place, if you place a light finger on it, you can then help gauge the brain to go into that. We can slow that right down, slow that movement right down and make sure we are kind of thinking about the muscle. They have shown, they showed in when they light lit up bits of the brain, they did show that when you were thinking about the muscle that you were training, the muscle responded like better in that way as well. So it's something that has been kind of scientifically proven to help in that way as well. All right.
Speaker 2:Amazing. So have we got any questions? Anything at all off the back of Anything. Cool. Alright then.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to kinda open it up to you guys now and move on from there and bring it into things that we are kind of struggling with a little bit. Maybe this is a really nice one to come in from Gabby with that.
Speaker 1:I'll just read it out loud for anyone who's listening
Speaker 2:And to so okay. There
Speaker 1:you go. Okay I'm totally allergic to exercise. I hate doing it and find it boring. Oh Gabby, do you want to jump on and say it?
Speaker 2:Okay. Hi Gabby.
Speaker 4:Hello. I was one of those people that was just terrible at sports at school and had horrible humiliating PE teachers. And so I'm now 51 and I'm trying to move my I realise I'm going to just ossify. I've spent my whole life just avoiding exercise completely, but I now realise I've got to otherwise I'll, I don't know, just collapse. So I've set up two bits of exercise that I can't avoid.
Speaker 4:One where I meet friends in the park for a boot camp and we go for coffee after, And one where I've actually set up a yoga class at my home and the yoga teacher comes to me and my friends so I can't avoid it because I have to open the door. I still try. So I'm trying to top that up with a couple of body weight. I'm trying to do two twenty minute workouts a week and I know it's not very much but I want you to reassure me that it's better than nothing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And firstly I just want to say I completely relate to those embarrassing moments in PA. They were the absolute worst and you know I remember walking around the cross country pitch being like I don't know what to run and anything like that. So I completely get that and also absolutely well done for getting into it at this point anyway because you know that you've got to do it at some point and now is a good a time as any. Right?
Speaker 2:So I love that we've set up these kind of like things for yourself so we can't avoid it. And I am can completely reassure you and say that actually, yes, twenty minutes is more than enough for you to be doing as additional to that. And it is so much more better than nothing. In fact, even if you were to just do five minutes, there was this really great new piece of research that came out recently that showed that actually even just five minutes of additional exercise, eleven minutes of extra sleep and quarter cup, so that's like a handful of extra veg a day, was enough to reduce cardiovascular disease by about eleven percent overall. So by doing that twenty minutes, you're already doing four times as much
Speaker 4:as you Hearing you say that now makes me think, brilliant. I already need to do five minutes.
Speaker 2:Twenty minutes is great. Twenty minutes is great. But even if you had time five, like, that is still great. You've got your boot camp in there as well. So you've got your slightly longer session.
Speaker 2:You're doing your yoga for your mobility and also to keep connected to the body, which I think is so important. So you've got a really well rounded thing. So any little additional bits that you can do, even if it is that five minutes, and then we build up to 20 is perfect. Mhmm.
Speaker 4:That's great.
Speaker 5:Thank you. No
Speaker 2:worries. No worries.
Speaker 3:And
Speaker 4:Any any tips just to motivate me to, like, you know I I had to do my as part of this challenge I had to do my first twenty minute workout today and I literally left it until half past six
Speaker 2:because And then I logged on the call at seven because then I know it's done. Absolutely. So I think the best tips I found for motivation is if it's something like a twenty minute workout at home, and I used to do this when I was bodybuilding, had to do my cardio, I would save something just to do while I was doing that workout. So for example, if you are at home and you've got a podcast that you really like listening to or something that you can be like, yes, I'm only gonna do this when I do my twenty minute workout, it gives you a little bit of something to look forward to because I noticed here you said you actively, you know, find it really boring. So give yourself something entertained with it there.
Speaker 2:The other thing to remember and like a slightly more practical point of view is that motivation and kind of willpower in a way will tend to dip as we go through the day. I'm a big fan of if you're really struggling with something, get up, get it done straight away. It's the first thing you do in the morning, and then you've got the rest of the day not to think about it. Especially if you're are doing it first thing, you probably won't even have fully woken up by the time that it's over, and then you don't have to think about it for the rest of the day. So I think having that there is a really good way of doing if you're able to fit that into your schedule in the morning.
Speaker 2:If not, having your why is a really good motivator as well. So I think if you have an area where you are working out and something that you set up for yourself, putting something in there to just remind you why you've booked onto this challenge, why you're doing this for yourself can be a really good reminder of thinking, actually, you know, I'm I'm here for a reason and this is for me. And it might not be what I wanna do right now, but I definitely will feel better when it's done. And I definitely will feel better in six, eight, twelve weeks time.
Speaker 4:Yeah. That's brilliant. My friend always says you never regret a workout that you've done.
Speaker 2:I think that's true. And I think that, like, knowing especially now knowing that if you start and you wanna stop after five minutes, it's absolutely fine. But guaranteed if you started, you'll probably wanna finish it at the end.
Speaker 4:Brilliant. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:No worries. Thank you so much for your question.
Speaker 1:I had a funny comment on what her technique is. Amy, do want to just jump on and share it quickly?
Speaker 6:Hello, I had a feeling you'd asked me to come on
Speaker 1:and say it. Yeah.
Speaker 6:I just said, for Gabby, my my trick is I catch up on Real Housewives during workouts at home. I just put it on the iPad and let it play, and that's the only time I watch it. And that's what gets me going because I'm exactly the same. I just I would rather sit than work out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I love that. Mine was Love is Blind was my cardio cardio show, and that is I only allowed I was like, if I'm gonna watch trash, I should do something while I'm doing it, and that that made it so much easier. And then I kinda look forward to it in a weird way. Alright.
Speaker 2:So we've got a few more down here. So one we've got is what is the best exercise to grow at the lower glute muscle? I found that the areas feel untoned and the top glutes are much firmer. So one thing you might find with this is the top glutes probably feel much firmer just because we tend to carry our body fat slightly on the lower glute as well. So you probably can feel the muscle a little bit more there.
Speaker 2:But the best exercise to grow through the lower glute, I'd recommend your Romanian deadlifts and your hip thrust variation. So if it's single leg, these dance will all be great exercises to include if we're not already doing so. And then from there, like we spoke, it's the lifting heavy. It's the progressive overload, making sure you're pushing yourselves with those movements each time each time you come in to do them. The other thing I could talk about glutes for
Speaker 1:a long
Speaker 2:other thing with glute glute symmeous is to make sure you are hitting multiple times a week as well. If you're doing these exercises just once per week and training glutes once per week, you won't see the glute growth that you want. You need to be hitting them twice a week as a minimum to kind of get that growth going on there as well. So I hope that answers that for you. Next one we have from Charlotte is to say, what warm up stretches should we do before a strength session?
Speaker 2:So that's a really good question. And warming up is such an important part of your training And it helps decrease the risk of injury or anything like that as well and gets the body primed for movement. So what I'd recommend if you are at home, I would do a little bit of kind of jogging on the spots and very light star jumps to start. Just get the blood pumping round first. If you're at a gym, you could do like a cross trainer, light walk on a treadmill, something like that.
Speaker 2:If you walk or jog to the gym, you can skip that bit. That's not necessary. The stretches you should do before the strength sessions should be your dynamic stretches. So these should all be stretches that you move through. They shouldn't be the standard like hold stretches.
Speaker 2:We do those at the end. So making sure that all the stretches that you do before your strength sessions are all movement based stretches. So ones that I like to incorporate in mine are for the upper body, things like arm circles. So moving the arms round, moving the arms backwards, and bringing them out and across through the chest. If you've got a broomstick, you can rotate round with the broomstick as well.
Speaker 2:And for the lower body, you might wanna do like a squat to stand. So kind of moving through those hamstrings a little bit. Any kind of cossack squats, body weight squats are also a great warm up to do before your strength sessions. Anything you can do to kind of get that blood moving. Hip openers, so coming up and around through the hips.
Speaker 2:And then starting with a very light warm up set of your movement before you do your working set of your movements. So if you're coming in to do something like squats, I'd always say do a body weight set or a very light set to start with. You don't have to do a full set. It doesn't have to be going. So it's really hard.
Speaker 2:It should just be something to practice that movement before you then go into your working sets that you've got on your plan. Cool.
Speaker 1:It's coming from Dina. Dina, are you on? And would you like to ask Zoe yourself?
Speaker 3:Give me
Speaker 1:a second. I'm gonna nudge you, Dina. There we go. Hi. I
Speaker 5:knew you'd cut me off. You okay?
Speaker 1:I'm well. How are you?
Speaker 5:Yeah. I'm fine. Thank you. Yeah. I was just asking.
Speaker 5:I seem to have a weak weaker side on my left hand side on my glutes, but obviously when you're doing, like, your glute bridges and everything, you're training both glutes together. So it's still it isn't getting any stronger than me oh, they're both getting stronger together, but, obviously, my right side's a bit long a bit stronger. And and also, when I'm doing RDLs, it it my lower back aches on that side. So obviously, I'm either not connecting right properly or I'm doing something wrong. So I just wondering if you had any advice.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. So not a problem. It's a great question. I think that we're all slightly, slightly imbalanced. Everyone's a little bit wonky, so it's really good to have have that there.
Speaker 2:So what I'd say is the first thing you could do is perhaps on those glute exercises, particularly the bridges is a really nice one to do it for. I would probably just swap them for a single leg variation. So all you need
Speaker 1:to do
Speaker 2:is just pick one foot off the floor in that position. It's significantly harder than trying to take
Speaker 3:both on the floor.
Speaker 1:Do I
Speaker 5:lower the weight then just to
Speaker 2:Yeah, get me absolutely. Start with the weaker side. So always start with the side. So you said it's your left hand side. So start with your left hand side.
Speaker 2:However many reps with whatever weight you do on that left hand side, when you go onto your right hand side, you need to match it. Even if you feel like you can do more, just stick with what you could do on the left hand side. So you're always working to the strength of the weaker side and it should eventually balance out. That would be something for your, glute bridges and hip thrusts, that kind of thing. I would add those in or you can swap them depending if you had time.
Speaker 2:With the, Romanian Douglas, what I'd probably suggest is doing a little bit of glute activation on the left hand side before you do that lift. So if you've got a little resistance band, the mini ones, you're walking that around your legs, either doing some kickbacks or just some kind of side abduction that way with that left hand side to try and get it firing before you go into your Romanian deadlifts and to see if that helps it activate to kind of reduce that strain on the back. It is probably an indication that that glute is a little bit weaker as to why you're feeling the lower back on that side and only that side, but just by adding in that little bit of warm up before you do that particular exercise should help.
Speaker 5:Oh that's great, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:No worries.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:We've got the next one from Erin who can't speak so I can't click on her. Erin asks, I'm struggling to lose weight eight months postpartum I've been exercising since I got the okay from the doctor and lived fairly heavy I ate reasonably well and had been in a deficit for months but in total I've only lost four kilos I still have 15 kilos to lose to get back to where I was before pregnancy it's not a matter of just the scale weight not moving and clothes fitting better either. I literally remain in the same measurements. Would there be any reason? Do you have any tips?
Speaker 2:Thank you, Erin, and congratulations, on your baby. What an incredible thing and absolutely amazing that, we're returning to exercise. Since you got the okay from the doctor, that is incredible as well as having, having a little one to look after too. The first thing I just wanna highlight is you're saying here you've only lost four kilo and I just want to say that it's still an achievement. So please don't dampen that down.
Speaker 2:I know it doesn't feel like as much, when you have less things to worry about and you can solely focus on, your weight loss journey. But when you are juggling all these other life factors in, that's still a huge achievement. So I just want you to just kind of take a step and be like, actually, that's that's still pretty good. Your body is actually still recovering from birth for about twelve months after. So it can react a little bit slower from this time, but that doesn't mean that you need to be disheartened in this way.
Speaker 2:With this, probably the biggest tip that might be, a little bit, easier for you to do in your situation would be to continue doing your exercises as you have and continue with your nutrition as you are and just look to see if there are any ways that you could increase just general activity through the day where possible. I know that is a little bit harder when you have got a child as well and someone that you are looking after. But I should imagine the reason that the weight is maybe moving a little slower is just where you are in your postpartum journey and just it can take a little bit longer. And I know it is incredibly frustrating and probably not the answer that you perhaps wanted to hear. But eventually it will come through if you just keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2:It might be worth if we are, It would be interesting to just hear if we were still breastfeeding or anything like that as well, because that can also play a part into into these things. So there are a lot more factors that you're considering postpartum.
Speaker 1:Is Kara online? I can see your picture. Do you want to jump on? I'm sorry if I've said your name incorrectly. Tiara?
Speaker 1:Brilliant, you're just on mute. There we go.
Speaker 3:Can you hear me?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, please ask a question.
Speaker 3:Well, similarly to the last lady, I had two hip replacements and just to give her a bit of hope, lost 10 kilos between the two but didn't change in shape at all. And it's only since I've been to the gym in the last year that everybody started like I've gone down three dress times. But my weight hasn't changed since about 10. So it does happen in the end. If you know what I mean?
Speaker 3:But I just wanna give anybody that hates the gym reassurance. I never went to the gym. I hated this. I had a big chest running. No way.
Speaker 3:Absolutely no way. But now I feel like I'm just working on my own lady's body. I want to be able to get up off the sofa when I'm 80 and just keep moving and I'm in the gym three times a week now and I love it. It's just like getting a second jam. So thank you for all your advice.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate this.
Speaker 2:That's incredible and thank you so much for sharing. That's absolutely amazing. And you're right. It is just future proofing and doing that thing for you to mean that you can you can continue to do all the stuff that you wanna do. And, you know, that's an absolutely incredible journey and how nice is it now that you're like, now I can say that I love the gym.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. So well done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I never thought I'd say that if you told me a year ago, say I love to feel much when you were lying. Need a personality transplant for that to happen.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. I I can feel that I once bumped into someone that I knew from secondary school when I was an adult and they asked what I did, and I said I'm a personal trainer, and they laughed at me because they thought it was definitely not not on the cards for me at school. So I can completely completely relate to that as well when you get to this point. Know, I never thought that would be me, but here we are. Perfect.
Speaker 2:Really good question. And it is slightly more nuanced than than perhaps originally thought. So it depends what you're looking at for that. So I the overall answer is if you are looking for the most effective way of burning fat, then you wanna do a combination of the two. Be that separate cardio and weights is two different sessions on different days, or if you wanted to combine them together as something like an EMOM on MRAP.
Speaker 2:If we were getting into the really, really nitty gritty of it, you burn more calories when you do cardio than you do for strength training. However, strength training itself has way more benefits in terms of preserving lean muscle mass, which we all know is very, very important, especially when you are in a weight loss journey. And you also continue to burn more calories at rest when you strength train. So when you do your gym workout and you go and do your weights and then you stop, that's actually when the body is doing its thing to repair it. So when you're training, you break the muscle down essentially and the body uses something called muscle protein synthesis to rebuild it.
Speaker 2:And that takes energy, which means you continue to burn after you finish training. So even though you might burn slightly more calories, which would be more effective at fat loss than when you're doing your cardio, your strength training is the thing that is really kind of the long term effective plan for that fat loss. So if it is if you're going for the most effective way, a combination of the two is the way forward. This being said, it does need to be supported by your nutrition. So in order to lose that, you do have to be in a calorie deficit.
Speaker 2:So if you are not, supporting that with your nutrition, unfortunately, you can't out cardio or out train a bad diet. So that would be one of the most kind of, like, the biggest thing that I would say there as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you. No worries. And then another question I had offline was if you're stuck on a plateau, are there any little things you can do to kind of wake your body up and get it humming again?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. And I think, yes, there definitely is. So if you are stuck in a plateau, the first thing I would do is just take a little bit of stock at what it is you're doing in your day to day. I definitely know that I've been stuck in a plateau before and then realised actually I've just probably been a little bit more snacky and been a little bit less accountable for what I was doing. So just take stock of everything that you're doing at that point and just, you know, it's always good to do a bit of a touch base to be like, am I honestly sticking to everything a 100% here?
Speaker 2:And it might be that you are in which case, you know, absolutely top work. We might just need to adjust things ever so slightly. So if you were stuck in a plateau and just a little bit to get going, what I'd probably suggest is very, very small changes. So for example, just going for an extra ten minute walk a day, tacking on five to ten minutes of extra cardio at the end of your session, or just kind of bringing your calories down by maybe 50 calories a day, something like that. Very, very small changes to get your self moving a little bit more.
Speaker 2:I would also wanna have a little look at your sleep and your stress levels. So if you are finding that you are really struggling in terms of blood plateau, but our sleep is all over the place and we're feeling really stressed, that can impact your weight and it might find it's a little bit up and down that way. So making sure you're recovering well, you're resting, as well as training hard would be the best way of breaking through that plateau there.
Speaker 1:Thank you. And then I had a similar number in reverse, which was a member is looking to gain some weight, but they want to gain healthy weight. How do they go about achieving that? And how do they make sure that they're gaining muscle as well?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And that's a really great question and one that's often overlooked because I think we all kind of focus on weight loss quite a lot. And actually, weight gain is sometimes just as important. And if you are looking to gain muscle, you might find that the scale weight does go up. So if you are looking to do it in a really healthy way, the most important thing I would say is looking at the food quality, so the quality of food that you're eating, making sure you're having a high protein diet, whole foods, 80% whole foods, think, is the way forward.
Speaker 2:20% soul food, I always like to say. So making sure the quality of your diet is high and the surplus that you are in, because you will have to be in a calorie surplus, is not excessive. So, for example, if you have your maintenance at about 2,000 calories a day, I'd probably recommend maybe going over by up to 2,200. So a very kind of, like, small surplus to make sure it's a slow, gradual, steady weight gain. By making sure that you're kind of putting on muscle in that way, that's when your training comes into play.
Speaker 2:And that's when it links back all to that kind of, you know, making sure you're pushing yourself in your workouts. You're using that RPE scale. You're working at that kind of eight ish out of ten, eight to nine out of 10, and really training hard in the correct way. One that's often overlooked in this weight gain again is the recovery. So if you are looking to put on weight in terms of muscle mass, making sure you're recovering between your workouts is really, really important as well because like I said, that's when the building happens.
Speaker 2:Making sure you're taking adequate rest between your workouts, and making sure you're getting enough sleep as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Perfect. And, Katherine, are you online, or would you like to jump on and have a chat to Zoe? Oh, her mic's not working.
Speaker 2:That's okay. Is that this question here? Does it work doing a straight swap of dumbbell exercises for barbell equivalent exercises? Alright. Lovely.
Speaker 2:So if very basic terms, yes, you can do a straight swap for dumbbell to barbell equivalent exercises. You might find that you have a little bit of a preference for one or the other, or it might just be if your gym is really busy you can't get the barbell and you want to use a dumbbell or you just have dumbbells available for home. Yes, that's absolutely fine. You can do a straight swap. You do have slightly different benefits of both.
Speaker 2:So for example, you can normally load more weight to a barbell. So if you wanted to kind of push a really heavy weight, you'd wanna use a barbell for that one. But dumbbells require a little bit more stability. So I don't know if anybody's ever done like, a dumbbell shoulder press versus a barbell shoulder press and the dumbbell ones all like this at start. So if you do have some benefit for doing some dumbbell work because it trains the arms individually so you can make sure they are more even and you've not got one taking over.
Speaker 2:And you also train the stabilising muscles around the joint as well. So I would recommend trying to do a little bit of both. But if you are stuck for time or stuck for kit, yes, you can do a straight swap.
Speaker 1:Just on that, Zoe. The difference between using a machine to help you and using free weights, is there anything better in one or the other?
Speaker 2:That's a that's a great question as well. So you will have many hardcore gym people tell you that free weights is definitely better than machines. But, actually, if you're looking at hypertrophy, which is just muscle growth, you will see, there's no significant difference between the two, whether you would like to use machine or free weights. So if you're looking just for building muscle and you're more comfortable using the machines, absolutely, you won't get any kind of benefit lost by you doing them. That being said, when you use your free weights, they have their own kind of set of benefits as well there as well.
Speaker 2:So if you are using free weights, you're going to be engaging your core a little bit more. You're going be stabilizing yourself a little bit more. So you're going to be doing lots more than just building the muscle. It kind of has, you know, extended benefits of using the two. I think using a combination of the two is really good because as you get more tired through your workout, you want to do your bigger exercises first and perhaps use your machines a little bit later on for your isolation exercises.
Speaker 2:So if you wanted to work on certain parts of your glutes, the machines are really useful there. So you can use combination of the two, but if there is a significant difference between the two between just essentially just building muscle, no. You can use them if you are more comfortable using the machines.
Speaker 1:Karen's got another question.
Speaker 2:No problem. Thank you, Karen. So, yes, does a lying down leg press do the same as a sitting up a straight one? So I am assuming you mean the the one you get where you put the little pin in, the pin resistant one, and then you also have one where you can load the plates either side and you kind of sat up at 45 degrees. They do exactly the same thing, in terms of the muscles used.
Speaker 2:They're all both will use your whole of the leg, primarily the quad, but you're gonna use the whole of the leg for those ones in a similar way to you do your squats. It does do essentially the same thing. So if you're in the gym and you need to use whichever one is free, that's not a problem. You might find that the weight you lift on both is different. So you tend to find because of the way you can push the lying down one, the weights are a little bit heavier.
Speaker 2:As long as you're progressing it, as long as you're training hard on it, you're not gonna get any less benefit from using the sitting up straight one.
Speaker 1:Any other questions from everyone? From Dina, do wanna jump on again? I'm gonna
Speaker 5:Hi. Sorry. I didn't I didn't wanna hear you again. Yeah. I was just wondering.
Speaker 5:Is there any I can't see where I'm on. Is there any benefit to doing, like, two upper, two lower, or can you mix it as like, you know, your splits in the week, or do you do, like, a full body do one upper, one lower, two full bodies? Is there any benefit way around it, or does it depend on what your your goal is, I suppose, do you think?
Speaker 2:So it does depend on what your goal is, and it also depends on your your schedule and your how you're gonna set your workouts through the week. So if you are doing like an upper, lower, full body, that kind of thing, we essentially want to try and hit the muscle group multiple times a week. So if we've got the space and we enjoy training and we can train four times, I'd recommend an upper lower, upper lower because you've split it up then over the course of the week. If we can only train two or three times, I'd probably say doing like a full body would be better. So if you're training three times a week, ideally you do like three full bodies, Monday, Monday, Friday.
Speaker 2:But if you work shifts or perhaps that doesn't quite work, you might want to do upper, lower and then full body. The only thing with full body, if you're doing multiple full bodies a week, you need to have a rest day in between. So that's why sometimes it's useful to use the upper lower so you can train on the same days. Sorry, back to back days without having to do that rest day. So it really does depend on your availability to train and your ability to recover as well.
Speaker 2:So if you're finding that you're training more frequently, but then you're super sore and performance is kind of going down the drain because we're not recovering properly, you might wanna scale that back a little bit and go for a more of a full body approach.
Speaker 5:Okay. That's great. Thank you.
Speaker 2:No worries. Okay. So I think the one from Esme is a pretty good one as well, as a question there because I think that is something that most people would feel.
Speaker 1:So she Is said is May on? Are you online? Either to have a chat.
Speaker 2:Oh, hi. Oh,
Speaker 7:hi. Hi. I just worked out the mic. Yeah, I know I feel like it's a silly question and I'm 45. I shouldn't have these sort of worries but I used to be a member at a gym in The UK and I'd never used the actual gym.
Speaker 7:I would just go to classes and avoid the gym. Sometimes I'd go on the treadmill and go for a run, but I would never use the machines, like never ever. I just found it so intimidating. And I'd say maybe three weeks ago, I joined a gym with my husband and we've been using the machines. And I don't know, maybe I'm a bit more confident because I'm with him, but I've always had that, I don't know, like that fear of looking like you don't know what you're doing or you're not fit enough to be there.
Speaker 7:I mean I'm sort of over it a bit now but yeah it's always been a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah I completely get that and I think the gym is one of these really weird little things because it's not just it's like a social pressure as well as a physical thing. So you're almost performing in this group room full of strangers. So it's really natural for it to feel really intimidating because it's not just, you know, everyone's out of their natural habitat. I would say the thing to remember is that nobody is actually looking at you at all. Everyone I can guarantee is looking at themselves in the mirror so you can just kind of take a little bit of a step back from there.
Speaker 2:And I've seen some people do some weird and one and I myself have done some weird and wonderful things in that gym. I've dropped weight and was training with Gex, I think, and I nearly knocked myself out with a barbell. No one even batted an eyelid. Like, nobody really cared at all. And I've been doing this stuff.
Speaker 2:I've been training for thirteen years, and I still do silly things like that, and nobody looks at me at all. So I think it can feel super intimidating when you go in. I think going with someone, a partner or a friend, is a really good way of kind of getting over that. The other thing to remember is you're you can move bits of the equipment around if your gym allows you to do. So if you want to do something, but perhaps the space is a little bit full and you feel a little bit intimidated by certain areas of the gym, just take the kit somewhere else until you've built up that confidence.
Speaker 2:And just know for yourself, you have just as much right to be there as everybody else. You've got to start everyone starts somewhere. Everyone is a beginner once. And just because some people have trained for a little bit longer doesn't mean they have any more right to be in that space than you do.
Speaker 7:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Alright. Thanks for that. Hey. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Victor, you had a question for Zelle. Is that on line? Yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Hello.
Speaker 1:Hi. Hi.
Speaker 8:So, yes, I what I do is strength training three times a week. So there is a place called Kisa. It's an Austrian place, but they're in Australia. And what they do is this target targeted training. So these machines that you can actually lock down the other part of your body, and they you do strength training.
Speaker 8:So that that goes like it's it's a bit high intensity. It goes for two minutes, so you you're probably familiar with it. Or yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I do that three times a week, roughly for, like, a forty minute session and so.
Speaker 8:And I just wanna know so, obviously, I need to do resting in between, but I wanna know how can I actually space out also cardio and swimming and stuff like that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I completely understand that. So you've got your resistance training, and you've got your rest days in between, which is perfect. If you're doing what I'd say is, like, low impact cardio such as swimming, you can slot that into your rest days, providing you feel okay in your body and it shouldn't impact your training whatsoever. If you are doing some more hip based stuff or something like that, which is more explosive, that would be a little bit, I would think about when you wanted to pop that in.
Speaker 2:So for example, if you had like a session that you knew was gonna be particularly heavy on the legs in the resistance stuff, I'd maybe not do the hip just before that. We've kind of put that a little bit further away or behind something that was a little bit more upper body based. So it would depend what you were doing more as a focus in those sessions. But if you're doing something kind of like, you know, cross training, swimming, that kind of stuff, that can kind of slot in quite nicely because you've not got as much impact through through the body there. So it should be fine.
Speaker 8:Okay. And and what about running?
Speaker 2:Running, so running would depend on, again, how your legs recover. I personally find as long as I haven't done something super heavy with the legs, I can run-in between my weight sessions and it not be too much of a problem. However, if you're finding that they are feeling a little bit heavy, I would give yourself an extra rest day probably before or after you run, dependent.
Speaker 8:Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 2:No worries. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I think that answers Chloe as well, but I'll just check. She was looking at how to space running strength training and time to wait between sets. So
Speaker 2:Okay. So, yes, that does kind of go over that running cardio strength training. If you do have, split days as well going into that upper lower, I'd probably say basing your running around your upper days is advisable as well. It's just a little bit easier that way to give your legs a bit more rest. So with regards to the time between sets, yes.
Speaker 2:So there is a recommended wait time. I would say I always say about ninety seconds is good one to do. It probably feels quite long, especially if you're not looking at your phone in between your sets. Sitting there for ninety seconds does feel a little bit challenging. But actually, people are quite good at self regulating, so they did show that scientifically as well.
Speaker 2:And you can wait up to four minutes in between sets if you are really, really dying and you need a little bit of X-ray, and that wouldn't impact your progress at all. But I'd say ninety seconds to two minutes is probably ideal.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And then we have, a question from Gethrin. Sorry. We both can't jump online. So what is the correct I think I've got it working now.
Speaker 1:Oh, brilliant. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:It's working. Sorry. I think it was
Speaker 9:because my signal issues earlier when I rejoined, it didn't allow the mic. It was just if I'm potentially gonna be joining the gym, the only bit that worries me is when you're between sets, are you meant to just sit on the machine?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. So
Speaker 1:if people give you a
Speaker 9:funny look, then blame them for being rude.
Speaker 2:No. No. No. And to be honest, sitting down in between sets is why I got into the gym because I was like, this is great. This is kinda exercise.
Speaker 2:And yes, it's perfectly acceptable just to sit on the bit of the machine. The only time you might wanna get up and swap is if the gym is busy. Someone might ask to just take turns with you and that's perfectly normal gym etiquette. But, yeah, just sit on it. That's fine.
Speaker 2:Sit on Keep your feet up a little bit. Okay. Amazing.
Speaker 1:Anyone else? Anna. Oh, we're gonna get a little Scottish accent, we won't. Hi, Julie. I'm trying to work out I can't do one, I'm not gonna try.
Speaker 1:Trying to add in some resistance training. I'm terrible and just do some running at the moment. If I'm doing both on the same day, is it better to do running first and weights or weights then running?
Speaker 2:I personally would do weights then running, especially if you are new to weights. Ideally, I would split them. But if you can't, I would do your weights first because you want to be slightly fresher for something. That one is a little bit newer for you because you probably your body's not used to it in that way. And also, you you don't want to be as tired when you're basically lifting lifting heavy stuff and putting it back down again.
Speaker 2:Want to make sure the body's fresher for that. If you can't if you have to do cardio and weights on the same day, would try and do your weights first and your cardio after.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Any other questions? Ketan, have you got your hand up, think? Yeah. I do.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to put it back down, though.
Speaker 9:I was just gonna check. So I hadn't done any resistance training before LeanShield. Sorry. I've got loads of questions tonight.
Speaker 2:Oh, no. It's so much fun.
Speaker 9:And I'm really enjoying it. And I got like a beginner set to use at home. So it goes up to like 20 and I'm currently on about 15. So I'm sort of thinking when I do sort of max out what I've got at home, should I sort of unless I'm gonna buy, like, proper stuff for at home, I'm probably looking at joining a gym, haven't I, to continue with proper progress?
Speaker 2:I I would say once you've reached that 25, there will there will be slight, like, limiting factors in the options. Yes. If you were like, actually, I don't wanna go to the gym. I'd rather just invest in more weight at home. You will still see the progress.
Speaker 2:Or if actually it'd be easier to join the gym, then that's fine. So it depends whatever's going fit into your schedule that way. I definitely know that a few of my clients who train online with me have just slowly added to their home gym over the course of the years, especially since post pandemic, everyone's selling it much much cheaper on Facebook Marketplace than before. But if you did want a little bit more scope, then a gym, if it is an option, is a good one to do.
Speaker 1:Okay. Perfect. Thank you. No worries. Now I've got Amy and Stella.
Speaker 1:A big bed and My little my little fur child.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Would say. I think he's quite a cutie. I
Speaker 1:have a question
Speaker 6:about hypermobility. So I was diagnosed recently, but I've known for a long time that I have it. How do you know what exercises not to do or when you're in the middle of an exercise when you should stop? Because I often, particularly with mobility stuff, I often won't feel anything. But sometimes if I'm in the gym, someone will come up to me like my trainer I used to have, she'll say, oh don't don't do that.
Speaker 6:You could hurt yourself doing that because you won't feel the limit. So I always struggle to find out which what I should and shouldn't do.
Speaker 2:Was that in terms of like the range of motion that you were going through or the weight
Speaker 3:that you were using?
Speaker 6:Usually range of motion stuff is what I've noticed.
Speaker 2:That makes more sense. So I just thought I'd check. And it's that's a little bit of a tricky one and something that I haven't experienced much through my years, but I can I'd say something that perhaps to focus on would be not locking out any joints, making sure you're always soft through your joints is a good place to start. And if you're not sure, as much as it can feel a little bit awkward doing this, but just filming your set in the gym, even if it's just like a bit of a dodgy angle on front facing camera and just watching it back is a good way of just checking that you're still within a good range, especially if you can't feel it. And then you can adjust yourself from there because you've got the visual feedback.
Speaker 2:If not that, if you can use the mirrors, it's always a good option. That's why they have so many mirrors just around the gym as well.
Speaker 6:Brilliant. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:No worries. Thank you.
Speaker 1:We had a question from Charlotte, which I missed earlier. Charlotte, are you on or would you like to jump? Oh, you two are right there. Would you like to ask?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I just wondered about protein. Do we need to, like, have some protein straight straight off post header weight?
Speaker 2:Yes. So brilliant question and one that has circulated the fitness industry for many many years saying that you need to have your protein shake thirty minutes after you've done your strength training workout. Otherwise, the whole thing is used and you've missed all of your all of your gains. But actually, no, you do not need to have your protein straight after. You can go out for about two hours.
Speaker 2:So if you've gone to the gym in the evening, you're okay to just come home for dinner and that would be absolutely fine. You should have protein after your workout, but it doesn't need to be straight away. I'd also say hydrate in there as well is a good thing too.
Speaker 3:Okay. Cool. Because I like to go swimming after. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're fine for that one. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's chug a bit chug a protein shake before.
Speaker 2:I'd be so ill. And just I know. You're okay. Few hours.
Speaker 1:Zoe, while while we're on that one, what about pre workouts and and all the things that you can take before a workout? What's the gossip that?
Speaker 2:Has anyone had a try of a pre workout before? No. Yes. Amy nodding. So, yes, there are loads and loads of different supplements that play like, claim to benefit your workout beforehand, and some of them will.
Speaker 2:However, in my personal opinion, having tried a lot of them through all of my twenties, nine times out of 10, they are gonna be a little bit of a waste of money. Your most effective pre workout is probably coffee. So you can just have a nice coffee before you go, a nice black coffee, and you should be fine. And you're better off making sure you've had your caffeine if you are a caffeine drinker, and you've had a good meal beforehand, and you should be okay.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, Zoe, I will stop it there because Zoe, working the hour, she does just get up at four in the morning, I think. Thirty. But I just wanna say thank you for your time as I mentioned Zoe is a world champion bodybuilder she has a master's in psychology and she's an absolute expert in what she does and we're all very very lucky to have her time. Her Instagram is MrsZoeMac If you wanna add her or ask her any questions, I can assure you she's lovely and a wonderful help, so please don't be shy.
Speaker 1:Anything you'd like to say, Zoe?
Speaker 2:No. Just thank you so much for having me. If there's any questions that you guys think of, please feel free to drop me a DM on Instagram. I'll get back to you with anything. It's been an absolute delight and, you know, it sounds like you've all really taken this challenge and are running with it, and it's been brilliant to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:Amazing. You so much. Everybody, have a great night, and thank you for coming. You are part of what makes this also special and important. So I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:Thanks, guys. Thank you.