#201: Your Most Common Fitness Questions — Answered!

Have you ever wondered what really works in fitness? From workouts and strength training to nutrition and recovery, there’s so much conflicting advice out there — it can be overwhelming.

In this episode, I answer the most common fitness questions I get every day, breaking down myths, clarifying misconceptions, and giving you practical tips you can apply immediately.

Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey, returning after a break, or looking to level up your results, this episode gives you clear answers, actionable advice, and motivation to move forward confidently.

🎧 Listen now and finally get clarity on your fitness journey!

If you're facing challenges on your midlife journey and need some guidance, I'm here to help. I'm currently opening slots for a few individuals to join my FREE 1:1 Coaching.

Apply now for personalised support from me.

Or you can check more of my coaching programs here


WAS THIS HELPFUL?
I’d be so grateful if you could take a moment to follow, leave a 5-star rating, and download a few more episodes.


WORK WITH ME:

Move Better, Minimise Pain, Prevent Injuries, Relieve Stress and Enhance Your Everyday Life with my Total Body Connection Program

Ditch one-size-fits-all dieting and discover your unique nutritional blueprint with
28-day Revoloution Program

Discover your Inner self and Improve your mindset with Mind Over Muscle Program

Join my EXCLUSIVE community of Women in Midlife: Strong Body & Mind Tribe


SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
Follow me on Instagram: @renae_midfit
Check me on Facebook: ...

Transcript

#201: Your Most Common Fitness Questions — Answered!

[00:00:00] Hello, hello and welcome back into, all things health and fitness. Now, today I have some more common questions that people have asked about, on the internet, and I'm giving you my opinion and my answers about health and wellness, and I'm sure there are probably some questions that you probably have asked yourself.

If you've not, I'm sure they're things you've probably thought before. So the first, question is, apart from daily workouts, what else can I do to look after my health? Now as important as workouts are, I think it's really, I think it's really crucial to understand that the reason of why we're exercising, so we are exercising, I hope that most of you are exercising for your overall health.

So by, by being, by exercising, by doing certain type of exercises, cardio, you're improving your heart health. So that's one [00:01:00] thing by working on your flexibility and your mobility that is improving how you move and, looking at fixing those aches and pains. By doing weights that is improving, your strength and, it's gonna help give those people that toned look that you're all looking for.

Now, when we combine it all together, that is, what our workouts are and what our classes involve. But the important thing is it's not only, those types of exercises are working on those things, but not only those things having, exercise is, they say that it's just like a, better than any antidepressant that you could ever be prescribed.

So not only does it help keep us happy, it, we are being surrounded by friends. We're having interactions with other people. It's manage, helping manage our stress. So there is so much more to exercise than just, just looking to lose weight or to be. Skinny. And I think that's really important to start thinking about [00:02:00] why you're exercising.

Are you exercising for those reasons? And being more intentional about what you're exercise that is. So yes, it is important to make exercise a daily habit in some form or some way. And again, it all depends on what your goal is. But other than exercise, what else can you do to,, to look after your health?

The number one thing that I would be thinking of apart from exercise is obviously your sleep. Sleep is massive. It is something that is really underestimated as to how important our sleep is. And lots of people go by, I hear lots of people say, it's okay. I can last with hardly any sleep. And I'm sure you can, I have no doubt that you can do that.

But how much better do you feel when you are well rested? When we are tired, we tend to be more irritable. We make, poorer decisions. We tend to, we kind of have that I can't bothered attitude because we are so tired. So you're more likely to be going for food [00:03:00] that, is quick and easy. It's probably, maybe not going to, fuel you in the best way.

And it is a cycle. And we really do it is recommended. We have seven. To eight hours of sleep a day. The more hours that we have before midnight, the better. I aim to be in bed by nine, asleep. Not that far off. It. I'm not perfect every day. But I really do try and the more that you know, I've done it for years, I have reminders on my phone.

When to wind start to wind down. The more, when I don't get enough sleep, I know how crap I feel, and for me, it's not worth it. I also understand that there's this kind of balance of when we get to sleep, when we get, yeah, you might have, like kids or work or, and you are having, you wanna have that little bit of time on your own, and I get all of that.

But I just want you to think getting that extra hour or two on your own at night, is that worth feeling crappy [00:04:00] for the 16 hours during the day? It is up to you to decide, but I would really look at your sleep and making sure, look at your sleep routine. Look at are you getting a good sleep? Like you might be sleeping, but are you actually, getting into a deep sleep?

Are you actually feeling rested when you wake up? So, the best indoor is when you wake up. Do you feel rested or do you feel like, oh my God, I'm just so exhausted still? So our sleep, to balance our overall health is. Is what I would be looking at. The other thing is your food. If you are looking to lose weight, food is like, it's 80% what you're putting in your mouth.

Prepping, planning your food, making sure you are having a diet, high in protein. Which is gonna help you build muscle. But again, your specific, diet is according to, depending on what your goals are. But we do need a balance of your macronutrients. So that's a balance of your protein, fats, and carbs.

[00:05:00] And it's it's really making sure that we are, eating a diet that is fueling our body correctly and making us feel better. When, , and , we all know it, like when we eat crappy food. So, lack of slave eating crappy food, it just, that cycle just flows. And I really believe like what you eat shows on the outside.

All these people doing all these things for their face and their skin and everything else. Well, we, you still need to look at it from. Look after it from the inside. So if you're wanting to look at your overall health, like I said, your nutrition, your food is 80% of, and I also really believe in that we can, we can prevent, prevent, eliminate lots of diseases and all of those things from, from what we're eating.

Now, everyone's different and that's why I do like to follow macros because you can balance them towards you, but it's just, it's just making sure the, the less [00:06:00] processed food, the better. As, as we have evolved, we are now at a very, very fast paced. Society and we are more fast-paced than what we've ever been before.

As a society, lots of different things have read and when you really think about it, we're not actually getting healthier. Where there's more autoimmune diseases, there is, more different. Ill, yes, they have, antibiotics and all of those things. But, but there is more cancers, there's more of those things around than ever before.

And I think lots of it is due to our very, very fast paced society now. It's looking at, the way that things are produced and we tend to be so busy that we are like, what can I get? What can I get that's gonna be quick? And we are just looking for those things, but mostly, companies are out there to make profit, so they're looking to make things that are going to last longer on the shelf.

They're adding fillers and everything else to make the food cheaper. And to bulk it all out for you. [00:07:00] So, just strip it all back to basics. The more things that you make from scratch, the more things that, there's less processed food, the better for your body and you'll automatically feel better for it.

Shopping. They suggest stick around the outside of the shops. Stick around the outside of the shops. There's not a lot of need to go into those center aisles and those center aisles generally is the thing that's filled with more preservatives and, more things. So, I, a few months ago just stopped buying.

Um, you I was buying all those kind of lunch bulky snacks things for the kids, and I've just stopped buying them. , They can have fruit and I have, I've just slowly transitioned 'em, and they've actually been fine without it. And it's also, it also adds up. And I've just stopped buying all that stuff for them.

I've obviously got into a phase of laziness, I think, and we all do it, and I've just stopped buying it. So, yeah. So look at your food, outside of your exercise. That's what you can also do. Self-care. [00:08:00] So self-care is a , really big word and people think that self-care is, going for fancy spas or, having facials or any of those things.

And that can be a self-care thing, which is great, but it's looking at self-care and stress management come together. So if looking at what can you do to help you, to, to help keep your cup full. I come across so many people that are busy and they, have all these other demands work and everything else, and they're forgetting to put themselves first.

Now the thing you've gotta remember, when we're in an airplane, what do they tell you to do? You need to put your mask on first. So if you are not okay, you are not gonna be good for anyone around you. You are not gonna be good for your parents. If you are having to look after them, you are not gonna be good for your work or your children or your friends or anyone else that are, that is around you if you are not good within yourself.

And, it's a big lesson that has taken me a long time to learn. And you do really need to put yourself first. And putting yourself first does not mean you're [00:09:00] selfish. It means that you are, you're prioritizing your, your self care. Now, instead of saying, well, I don't have enough time to fit this stuff in, I want you to reframe how you think and I want you to say, how can I make this possible?

So for things that I do that help me with self care is, I've put in my handstand class. That's just something that I really enjoy and I enjoy the challenge. I have a sauna. I enjoy going in the sauna, sitting in there. I enjoy a spa. So that's things that I've, incorporated over the last few years.

I meditate. So I, it is something that helps me become, I listen to guided meditations and throughout the years when I've listened to them and not listened to them, my day always runs smoother. When. I put them like the, guided meditation into my life. So, I I, it could be five minutes, so I really make that a priority.

Beach walking, [00:10:00] so I know not everyone loves the beach, but the beach is my happy place. So making it to the beach and prioritizing having that little bit of time, just to walk on the beach. Have your feet in the sand. That is something that I really, really love. And for so many years I would tell myself, I can't get there.

I can't do that. But that was just my old way of thinking. And I reframed my thinking to how can I make it happen? And I just, I just had to, I could make it happen multiple times a week. Now the thing is, with this self-care, it's important to do the self-care, not when things are bad, but you've gotta do it when things are good.

Because when things get bad or you hit a speed bump, or life gets that little bit even busier than what it already is, which it happens to all of us. You are already, your cup is already full. Your already cup is full. If life gets busy or we get whatever stuff thrown at us and your cup is empty, you've got nothing to come for.

And I know myself, I know [00:11:00] myself when I have, not. Kept that cup full. I'm snappier. I don't have as good a judgment. And I'm not as great a mom and that's not what I want to be. So prioritize some self-care for yourself. So exercise is really important for so many other things, but it, but alongside of exercise, there are, we can look at these other components of your sleep, looking at what we're putting into our mouth and prioritizing self-care and stress management.

So with. Self-care and stress management can kind of go together. But another way with stress, we are more overwhelmed as a society than ever before. But stress, there are things that you can control and there's probably more things in your control than, what we realize. So I recommend to write a list.

What are the things that are stressing you out? And look at how you can, how things you could prioritize or what could change. It's something I did a few years ago and I realized there was lots of things I could actually change. One thing was timing. [00:12:00] I was booking people too close together, not giving myself enough space because I wanted to make everyone happy and try to fit it all in.

Another thing was, the school pickup, again, so that went with timing. I was trying to be in too many places at once, so they were all things that, that I could manage at least say no to a few things. Just write the list out and you'll be really surprised that there are some things that you may be able to change, to help manage your stress.

Okay, so that was our first question. Our second question is, I'm feeling sore. What is the best thing to do? So if you are feeling sore after a workout, I would, there is thing called doms. Okay? So it's delayed onset of muscle soreness. Now feeling sore isn't an indicator of if you've had a good workout or not.

But it is something that does happen. So Doms would be that. So you would, let's say we exercise on a Monday. You would probably [00:13:00] find that your saw a day would be Wednesday. So , the second day, and then by the Thursday, you should be recovered. Now if you find that you are not recovering, I would look at what you're doing after your workout.

So what are you eating? There is a window of about two hours. Whatever you eat in the two hours after you exercise is what's gonna help your muscles repair. Remember, when we are exercising, our muscles are tearing and then they're repairing and they're repairing are stronger and leaner than ever. So if you go out and you don't eat after you've given your body nothing to help it repair.

If you aren't prioritizing water, you know you need your water to help you repair too. So look at what you're eating after you work out to help you repair in that way. And especially if you are finding that you are just not recovering, as well, the worst thing you can do. Is to do nothing. So if you were sore, years and years ago, I had somebody that, [00:14:00] um, she did a class, she felt really sore and she went to bed for three days.

I don't even know how you go to bed for three days, but that's what she did. And that's probably the worst thing she could do because everything just stiffens up. So you actually need to keep moving. So keep moving, keep the body active. Walking. Swimming, all of those things.

So keep your body moving in some way. Yoga, stretching, all of those things. So, so do not do nothing because you are sore, and start to take note of it, look at your cycle. Is that influencing? How your recovery is. Get to know your body more and start to understand it. If you are feeling sore, do not do nothing, stretch it out, move more.

I have people all the time that, they feel sore and then they think, I'm not gonna come, and then I go, no, we, as we will alter everything to suit you. I've had people that have come and we've just spent the session stretching and they've left and they've felt. So much better for it.

But if they did [00:15:00] nothing and they didn't come, you are going to just delay and that soreness will linger even more. So just always remember, keep moving. Um, and water. Water is so important. We underestimate how much water we drink. You need an extra liter of water for every hour that you exercise, and most people are already not drinking enough water.

If you drink coffee, coffee dehydrates you. Lots of people get up first thing in the morning and they have a coffee. They've not even had any water. We use a liter of water to sleep, so you know, you prioritize your water, it's going to help you recover. Okay, the next question is, how can I build an exercise plan?

I want you to think about what, what, when you're thinking of an exercise plan, it's really good to have a goal. So what are you looking for? What are you wanting to get out of your workout? And what is your goal for coming? And it's really good to reassess and as I keep reminding everybody, I offer monthly check-ins, you and me [00:16:00] one-on-one is part of your membership.

So do the monthly check-in and we can check your progress and, help you building an exercise plan. So I would really be, when you're thinking of building an exercise plan, again, it all depends on the goals, but you've gotta look at the components of fitness, the components of fitness that are there, combine it with your, combine it with your food and everything else, so, yeah.

So it's really, first thing is really think of your wine, what you want. It's important to exercise. It's important to exercise and make daily movement part of your routine. But sometimes it's really nice to have a goal and have something that we wanna work on. I know you all have already have good habits of having exercise in your routine, but yeah, think about what you're looking for.

So let's say somebody is looking for weight loss. Okay, so I am just gonna give you an a guide of weight loss. So if I was looking to lose weight, I, number one would be [00:17:00] making sure that I am. Moving more every day. So research shows that you, that we are, that the, if you move,, multiple times throughout the day, walking or whatever, multiple times throughout your day, moving more, it's better than doing a concentrated, like sitting all day in your bum and doing a concentrated hours walk.

So our bodies are designed to move, if you have certain watches, they tell you when to stand and when to get up. So know that you need to move more. So look at your steps. If you have a watch that tells you steps. If you don't have a watch that tells you steps or anything like that, this is what I'm doing on a day.

I need to add a little bit more in. Start, start seeing how you can move more. A 20 minute walk here, a 20 minute walk there. Anything. So look at the daily movement. Daily movement is underestimated so many times. Okay. So that's one of the things that I would be looking at with weight loss. Now, the classes, so I would be making sure that we are doing [00:18:00] strength, focused classes.

So any of the classes that are at 5:00 AM in the morning. 9:00 AM or any of the 4:00 PM Dropoffs, drop in circuits, any of those classes. 5:00 AM 9:00 AM 4:00 PM dropoff. They are all strength building classes. So they, those classes have all the components you need. They have core mobility, they have, your flexibility, they have cardio and they have strength.

Okay. So they're all in a different way and we change them up so often to keep your body challenged. So making sure that you are choosing at least at a minimum three of them a week. Now, when you are doing them, it is when you are at the gym. It's making sure that you are getting the most out of the time that you're here.

So a few weeks ago I encouraged everyone to lift, a couple kilos, heavier weight of what they were already lifting, and they could all do [00:19:00] it. So it's making sure that you are challenging yourself if you are coming and. It's lovely that we all chat and talk, but if you are coming and talking the whole time and you are not getting your heart rate up, well then, we are not challenging your body and a result is gonna happen when we challenge our body.

So I would be building, I would be looking at building there. I really like having things written down. So I like to have things written down and to see a difference. So say our Build Strong class, which is a Tuesday morning at 5:00 AM we work on the same thing for six weeks. So in those classes, we are really looking at building muscle in that type of session.

And they, we focus on the same things. We focus on technique, low heavy weights, low reps, and progressive overload and making sure that by the end of the six weeks you'll be,, maybe doing a few more reps or maybe lifting heavier. And that's how we get the change. The muscles have to tear and then they have to repair.

So again, this is, I'm just giving you an example of someone that's looking for weight loss. Okay. [00:20:00] And then you'd look at your food. Like I said, it's 80% of what you're eating. So you can't just come and you can't just come and think, well, I've done a workout, I've come at 5:00 AM I've done my workout for the day.

I don't need to do anything else. It's, we've gotta combine all of these components together. But remember, that's what, that's what we are here for, to help you combine all those components together. We only see you for one hour a day if we are lucky, , so. We, we need to help guide you what you can do all the rest of those hours.

So, your food is a massive component. So again, that's very individual, but it's understanding that your food is 80%. It's looking at how are you fueling your body? How are you fueling your body? What is right for you? What can you do, according to you, and we can all help design that for you, but it's understanding all of those components together.

Not to underestimate how important it is to have a rest day. So having a rest day is just as important as a [00:21:00] workout, so we don't need to be working out every day. And , how important doing some of the Move strong classes. The ladies that have been doing those sessions have come so far in other components of the classes because they've been spending the time working on those more intricate muscles.

In the move Strong classes Wednesday, we have a core and flexi fit. So that is a class that works on your core and your flexibility and your mobility. So that is also a comor important component. So look at how maybe you could try one of them a week. And it's getting those, looking at those, how we are moving and looking at that stuff.

Now, with all of that, you're like, I can't make it to classes. Again, we will guide you when you can do more things at home. Remember little intervals of stuff frequently, , throughout the day, adds up. So it's really. Looking at when we are looking to build an exercise [00:22:00] plan, I think it's really important to revisit what our goals are.

And I love revisiting goals. I'm constantly revisiting our goals. And do you know what? I need accountability. So I need somebody checking in on me and asking for me. And remember, that's what we're here for. So if you don't ask us, we dunno. So look, look at those things. And, book in with me to me if, in your monthly check in, look for that and, , let's, let's check on what you're wanting to and let's start chipping away at your goal before, before the end of the year.

So hopefully,, that has given you some insight. You might have had some of those questions before. I've got lots more on my page, so I will keep chipping away at them and bring you some more in the next few weeks. All right, if you have any topics you would like me to talk about, uh, please bring it up with me and, send me a message and let me know and we'll talk about that then.

Okay. I love you soon bye.