Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the Filter-Free Friday podcast. I am your host, Brittany Williams, and this is the podcast that reminds you that the distance between the life that you want to live and the life that you're currently living isn't nearly as big as you think. Happy Friday. We made it. Hallelujah. You know, praise to the higher power that is. Okay, we made it to the end of the weekend. I'm riding into this podcast recording right now. It is a Thursday. Y'all, I have a hefty Friday ahead of me. So when you're listening to this, I just need you to give me a slight prayer. I work at a gym. It is called Ignite Fitness. I know that's an ironic name because my program on the Sweat app is also called Ignite. That's just coincidence. There's no correlation. And the owner who teaches on Fridays is on his honeymoon, living it up with his wife. And so I am subbing for him 6, 7, and 9 a.m. I have not taught a 6 a.m. class since the Blake was born. Is that correct? I'm pretty sure that's correct. I'm 99.9%. That's not a lie. So I'm a little nervous about waking up at like 4.30 in the morning and then having to work. you know like if I needed to wake up at 4 30 in the morning and I could be in my pjs chilling in my house with a cup of coffee that'd be fine it's different when you have to wake up at 4 30 in the morning then you have to go to your place of work and then you have to lift heavy things and put them down and then also make sure that other people lift heavy things and put them down and do it in a safe environment a fun and safe environment do you know what I'm saying like teaching 6 a.m you got to make sure you have your your fitness trainer insurance because like you got to be on your Do you know? You know what I'm saying? Um... So I'm just a little, I'm like, okay, woo, Friday. But also I'm like, woo, I want it to be Friday at 10 a.m. when I'm done teaching 6, 7, and 9 a.m. Not because I don't love it. I love training in person. And if you're ever in Portland, Oregon, please come visit me. I teach on Saturdays at 8 a.m., not 6 a.m. But it just feels like, do you have like those things in your life where you think back or those times in your life where you think back to it and you're like, that was a different person. That's how I feel. about my journey in training fitness in person. Before Blake was born, like even during pregnancy, I was training I think 11 to 12 classes a week. I think 11. 12 feels like too high of a number. It doesn't matter. It was a lot. I was teaching multiple 6 a.m.s, 7 a.m.s. I had personal training clients for a part of that time. Then I stopped personal training one-on-one. But regardless, I was waking up at 4.30 in the morning multiple days a week. to go be a group fitness trainer and like the concept of me waking up that early to go to work now feels like there's no way there's no way I mean and I know there is a way and I want to get back to that life but the problem the problem and I have people ask me to teach 6 a.m classes every every day it seems like but the problem is my favorite thing my absolute favorite thing okay this is my second favorite thing in the world my second favorite thing in the world is when I open that door to wake Blake up when we give her so a little bit about Blake's like waking up routine we have a hatch sound machine so we can you can control it from our phones and it has a bunch of different sounds and one of the sounds is the birds and it's just birds chirping So we have it programmed that we can change it to what we call the birds. And a dim light will come on and the birds will sing, right? That's how she wakes up every morning, right? Like a freaking princess with the birds chirping in the background. So that by the time we open the door, it's not so startling. Like it's like a nice, calm wake up. Like she gets like five minutes to herself to wake up before we come in there and startle her to start her day. Highly recommend this if you've got a kid by the way I it also buys you some time because sometimes if the kid wakes up first and you're not ready to get them you can turn the birds on it lets them know hey I see you I'm coming give me three minutes do you know that's it is we've been doing it her whole life and I highly recommend it anyways I tell you that long ass story to tell you this my second favorite thing about my entire day all 24 hours of it is when I first opened the door to Blake's room in the morning and she's got that big ass grin on her face like that little moment if I could bottle that up and sell it I would be a billionaire okay I would I would I would rule the world all right but I can't I love that and the concept of missing that is is not worth teaching the money that I would get for teaching 6 a.m. class. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. I will teach them again, but it will only happen when the joy that I get from entering my child's room at what time do I wake her up? 7.15 in the morning is not as high as it is right now, okay? And if you're wondering, my actual favorite time of the day, my favorite moment of the day is when I'm putting her to sleep and Rob has left the room and we turn off the lights and I'm standing there and I'm rocking her and I sing her her little song and she'll she'll look up at me and she'll give me a little kiss she's Blake's big on kissing really she mainly only does it with me she kisses my mom via the phone via FaceTime I mean she'll kiss Rob and that sort of thing but like she doesn't do it with as much consistency as she does with me anyways the little kisses that she gives right before she goes to bed that's my actual favorite moment of the day but a close number two is when she wakes up anyways this is not about Blake she can be put on a shelf for an Okay, girl, we're not talking about you right now, even though we will talk about her in a second. We're talking about waking up at 430 in the morning. I ain't waking up at 430 in the morning if I don't have to. And I don't have to teach at 6am. Okay, I am lucky enough that I can pick my own schedule. And if I get to pick my own schedule, I ain't picking waking up at 430 in the morning. Okay, and I feel guilty about that because I have a lot of wonderful clients who I'm excited to see tomorrow when I wake up at the butt crack of dawn. to go train them in the morning I'm excited to see them again but I gotta make some personal sacrifices and I say that with air quotes because oh I have to sleep in till seven doesn't really feel like a sacrifice but I gotta make some sacrifices because I won't see them as often that was a very personal rant to start this podcast off I apologize but sometimes I just get going and that's where we end up going okay sometimes you get in the car with me and you're like Brittany where are we headed to and I'm like bitch I don't know put your seatbelt on it might be a bumpy ride it might be smooth I don't know Okay. Sometimes they go on these runs. I call them sun chaser runs. I highly recommend it. If it's summer where you are in Portland, we have, I don't know if we have many, very many days of sun left, so I can't do this, but you could do it. I call it a sun chaser run and it's when I go and I don't have any plan. I generally have a plan of the amount of time that I want to run, but I have no plan on where I want to go. And I just run down neighborhood streets that have the most sun. So you'll just be running down a running down a street in either like a dead end or or the sun. It's suddenly the street is shady. Then you turn left, you turn right, which direction looks like it has more shade. And then you go that or sorry, more sun and you go that direction. OK, I'm the kind of girl who loves the heat. I need the sun beating down on my back. OK, you tell me it's 100 degrees outside I think that's like 38 degrees Celsius I'm not 100% for sure but it's really effing hot okay I'm like put me in my booty shorts and my sports bra I want to go for a run okay I die on those runs don't get me wrong it's not that I'm I'm very good at running in really heat but there's something about like like in in stupid heat when I'm in stupid heat I want to go for a run I think that it's because I ran so many years in Houston Texas where it's like 110 degrees with 100 percent humidity and I was running like 75 miles a week I don't know what that is in kilometers it's a lot it's a lot okay I think that's why I think I think I just there's something about my pride that gets wrapped up in being able to run a lot of a lot of miles and a lot of heat Okay, I've gone down two tangents now. So let me, let me pull myself back. Let me look at my notes that I have written here and get us back on track, okay? But at least now you know what I'm doing on Friday, okay? If you're listening to this on Friday morning, I just need you to know I'm probably on my seventh cup of tea at this point, okay? First, we're gonna update, we're gonna bring Blake off the shelf now. We can talk about her again. Daycare, we are in our second week now and things have been positive. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a bit or if you know me personally, you know I'm not a negative person per se, but I can find a negative to complain and bitch about in just about any situation. The situation could be damn near perfect, but I will find the 0.01% that isn't perfect and I'll bitch and moan about it, okay? It's a weakness. It's not a good trait that I have, but it is a strong trait. That trait runs thick in my blood, okay? Blake's doing great at daycare. She loves it. She has stopped crying at drop off and we were only at week two she just walks on in she's not happy at drop off you know it's not like she's giddy but she walks over to her teacher and looks at me and kind of waves and it's just like a you leave me yet again like she's disappointed Blake constantly lives a life like she's better than the rest of us like she lives on a high horse and she looks down on you like that's just her vibe she's been like that from the beginning and we call her the queen because she is like I am a peasant To my queen. Okay. She just, she knows she's better than the rest of us. And I'll, I'll, I'll let her believe that. Okay. It's probably true if we're being honest. So she, you know, her teacher will pick her up and hold her and like, you know, I'll be like down on my knees, like putting her lunchbox in her cubby. And she's like, okay. you peasant yeah put my food in my in my cubby get down on your knees you peasant like she just kind of looks at me like you're leaving me here again okay but then she loves it then we get pictures of her a daycare and she loves it uh the one the point zero zero one percent that i'm going to complain about is that her naps aren't great i know it's two i've know it's been two weeks and so the end she only did a half week sorry half days the first two days so she has really only probably slept there for a nap time five times maybe um but she slept like two hours one day 45 minutes the other an hour the other an hour and a half the other like it's kind of been all over the place and I know I shouldn't have anxiety about it but I do okay we're just gonna have an honest mom conversation right now I know this is the sort of thing that will take a couple of weeks to get right um more than a couple weeks. It's going to take probably a month to get right. But I still just have anxiety about it. And I can't get that anxiety to go away. And every time I get the notifications, there's like a little app that like they use to communicate back with parents and they mark the start of her nap and the end of the nap. And every time they mark the start of her nap, I just get anxiety. Like the minute I get that notification, I get like just this like Blake anxiety over just like... okay I hope she has a good nap like I need you to know at home she naps for three to three and a half hours okay we rarely let her go three and a half hours but if she was given the chance she would take a full three and a half hours hard doesn't wake up is asleep like from start to finish three and a half hours it's not a brag that's just a fact okay so when I'd say that she only slept for an hour and a half a lot of people like that's great I'm like cool but if I didn't make this decision to put her in daycare and if she still had a nanny she would be sleeping three hours three hours for her nap and she still will get 11 to 12 hours at night totally fine the girl loves her sleep and the only thing I think I've placed sleep at like the this really really high premium which I know is ridiculous okay I recognize the irrational illogicalness what's the noun of a lot illogical Doesn't matter. I understand where I lack the logic of my thinking. But it's still there. The thoughts are still there that like I have made this. It feels like a very selfish decision because I'm here at my office or which is my guest room of my house. And I've gotten so much work done since we have taken Blake to daycare. When I tell you that there are days where I get more done in a singular day than I would in a week when Blake had a nanny, not because of the nanny, not because of Blake, but like per se, like they didn't do anything wrong. But hearing her here in the house while I was trying to work, even if I wore noise-canceling headphones, I just– half of my brain was listening. Half of my brain was being a mom. And I was never able to be 100% Brittany, the fitness trainer, influencer, career girl. I was– 50% that and 50% a mom. Okay. Like when she was here in the house and I also was, we only had a nanny three days a week. So like I also wasn't working nearly and we only had a nanny for, uh, portion of the day, whereas Blake goes to daycare full time right now, like five days a week, you know, 830 to four. So I am truly now back to working true business hours, so to speak, I am putting in a lot more time into my job. And I freaking love it. First of all, I freaking love working. I love my job. I am very excited to have that time again. But the guilt that comes with how giddy and how productive I am around work is sacrosanct. Sacrificing my kids sleep. I that. Oh, you guys, I need to. I had therapy yesterday or two days ago and I didn't talk about in therapy that in therapy, but I should have. But I should have because that runs deep in my veins. I need it. I the guilt I have and I am worried that like she's not going to develop as much, I guess, because she's not sleeping as well. Again, I know that's not how that really works, but sleep is important for development. Anyways, I'm on this rant. But this is how I feel deep down in my core. And a few of you have asked for an update on daycare. So it's going really well. She's a happy girl. She comes home happy. We haven't had any major issues. Everything has been good. I just need to get her sleep to be longer so that I don't feel so guilty. And then she also doesn't seem to be eating as much of her lunch as she usually would. I pack her the same amount of food and the same types of food that she would eat at home. And like... I come back and I feel like she's eaten nothing. Now they snack a thousand times during the day at her daycare. So I think she's still getting the calories in. And I kind of feed her when we get back from from daycare. I will feed her the food from her lunch that she didn't eat. So she does end up getting it. It's just, that's been a shift and I don't have as much anxiety about that, but I have a little bit, a little bit, a little bit of anxiety, but generally going well. Haven't gotten sick or anything yet. Knock on wood. Everybody's got a bit of a sniffle. Okay. Her, me, Rob, but like nothing, nothing major. So that will hit us at some point and I'll keep you updated. But all of this, I tell you this, not just to update you about my life, but I tell you this with a purpose. Um, I'm thinking about Blake's sleep and how when I get anxiety about something, There's parts of me and this is very much how I work with things with my therapist of how when you're approaching something with your life, you often have multiple feelings about it, not just one. And it's worthy of taking the time to explore each part of you. And so part of me is super anxious that Blake isn't getting as much sleep as she used to during her nap. Part of me feels very guilty that I'm sacrificing her sleep for my productivity because that's what it feels like it feels like I'm kind of trading one versus the other even though there's a ton of positives there's a ton of positives for daycare it's not just about anyways I'm going I can talk about this forever because I'm so emotional about it there's a part of me that's anxious it's a part of me guilty But there's a part of me who also knows that it's a process, that progress, that getting better at being able to nap around other kids is a process and it's going to take her time. And instead of clenching on to every negative day, like yesterday was a negative day. She only slept for 45 minutes. So instead of letting that 45 minutes dictate or that one day where she slept for 45 minutes dictate the fact that, oh, she's not successful, she's not She's not doing it. is going to be over a longer period of time. And we have to wait, frankly. There's nothing I can do right now in week number two to get her back. where I need her to go or where I hope she gets to from a nap perspective. So for me to quiet that part of me that has anxiety, I need to look for signs of progress in her own routine that are worthy of championing and celebrating, right? The fact that she did have her two hour nap, the fact that she can go down quickly, like she doesn't struggle to fall asleep there. That's a huge win. Uh, the fact that she comes home and still feels well rested and still sleeping well at night and isn't like, um, having sleep problems because of that. There's so many different wins that I need to not look at just the negatives and I need to look and not just look at the fact that we're not there yet, right? We haven't gotten to our destination and the destination would, I mean, I would say hopefully be able to consistently sleep for over two hours at daycare, right? That would be success to me. We're not there yet, but that doesn't mean that we're not successful. It just means that I need to find milestones, guard posts, Things that I can latch on to to say we're moving in the right direction. And I was kind of having this conversation with myself and then I was I kind of giggled to myself because I'm like, man, this is the same conversation I have with clients around success in their fitness routines, in fat loss, in weight loss, whatever your performance goals are. around health and fitness it's the same damn thing and it's funny I've talked about this for sure on Instagram I don't know if I've talked about it on the podcast and actually this is embarrassing to admit I scrolled back through some of my old episode descriptions to see if I had talked about this before on the podcast so if I have I apologize but I don't remember talking about it which probably means you don't remember talking about it or remember me talking about it but who knows I talk about a lot of things on a lot of different platforms and I get all my wires crossed in my brain so maybe I have and if I have I apologize but I still think even if I have discussed this on the podcast it's worthy hearing again because this concept of looking for signs of progress that aren't just your the arrival of your end destination is so important for so many different things and in the world of fitness and health there's something called an NSV which is a pretty standard thing that you'll hear people talk about especially when people are trying to lose weight or fat and it's a non-scale victory that basically means what is a victory what is a win that has happened that is not related to the number on the scale so if your goal is to lose 20 pounds and you get on the scale and you've only lost four that can be a little disheartening, right? Because you haven't had a victory yet, so to speak. So instead of wrapping all of your success in what the scale says, which is something you probably shouldn't do anyways, but I think we talked about that last week or the week before. So refer back if you need to. But what are those wins that are happening in your life and are happening in your journey that have nothing to do with the number, right? right? That's what a non-scale victory are because if you are doing the right things and if you are trying to lose weight, you probably aren't going to lose a lot of weight all at once or quickly, right? That's not how you should do it from a safety perspective or from a longevity perspective. Weight loss and fat loss tend to happen slowly over time and they generally recommend you really shouldn't be losing more than one pound a week anyways. So it's going to take a while depending on how much you are trying to lose. So you kind of have to fill in the gap like where one pound doesn't feel like a lot, what is happening in my journey, in my progression to get to where I'm trying to go that I can celebrate right now so that I can stay positive about my progress? And so while weight is one thing, and for the reasons I already kind of discussed in that episode around fat loss, I don't really want to spend a lot of time talking about fat loss because I prefer to focus more on performance goals. I prefer more to focus on things that we can control, things that are happening in the gym. And I think that so often people have this end goal that they want to get to. I want to be able to, I want to look a certain way. I want to be able to do pull-ups. I want to be able to do push-ups on my toes. I want to lose 20 pounds, whatever those goals are. I want to provide you a roadmap to staying positive in your journey of getting from point A to point B and it does not matter what your end result goal is okay so I'm gonna give you five signs of progress that are worthy of celebrating I'm gonna give you five non-scale victories that I need you to look out for I need you to put on your binoculars I need you to put on your glasses your goggles whatever you got and I need you to keep a lookout for these things in your fitness routine and when they happen I want you to celebrate the shit out of them I want you to be so effing excited when these things happen okay they're just as important as any number that's on the scale they're just as important as any progress photo that you take in the mirror they're just as important as how many your one rep max or how many pull-ups you can do or how many push-ups all of these things are getting you to where you're trying to go So the first one, number one, is that you are more consistent. Are you more consistent in your workout or whatever healthy routine you were trying to implement? Because if you can just work out more often. Simply put, it doesn't matter what you do. You want to just shake your booty. You want to do how to twerk classes on YouTube every day as your workout. That's fine. OK, good luck. Let me let me know what you learn, because I also would love to know how to twerk. OK, I can't. Not at all. I used to be able to dance, not to work, but dance, not so much anymore. Okay, I'm getting old. But if you are more consistent with whatever you're doing in that physical movement space and you're showing up more often than not, you are setting yourself up for a habit. And once that habit solidifies, it becomes a lot harder to break. And so on those days that maybe you decide, you know, I'm sick and tired of this twerking video. I've learned how to twerk. Let's do something else. Maybe twerking leads you to Zumba Maybe it leaves you to a hip hop aerobics class. That's fine. And then you do that hip hop aerobics class for the next three months. And then you get bored of that. And then you're like, oh, look at this cycling class. And then you do that for three months. That's fine. And then you find the sweat app and you're like, oh, my God, I want to get stronger and I want to have a home gym and I want to do all these things with Brittany Williams on the sweat app. Cool. Great. Pull up a chair, girl. We're here for you because you've built that habit. Starting off with that twerking video with YouTube, it's easier for you to It's easier for you, excuse me, it's easier for you to implement these new routines. It's easier for you to continue down this road of successful fitness routines because you've laid down a solid foundation. So when you see signs of you being more consistent, when you wake up one day and you just, you blink and you've put on your workout gear and you don't even, you're like, wait, hold on. There used to be a day where I hit snooze eight freaking times and I bitched and moaned my entire way to the gym. And one day you're gonna wake up and you're gonna be in the gym and you're like, wait, how did I get here? I don't even remember waking up. I woke up, I put my clothes on and I came to the gym because it was just so automatic. Celebrate that. That is a huge win when you get to that point to where your workout no longer is something that you have to think about making happen. It's kind of like learning a language. When, you know, you start to feel, I used to be, I'm not gonna say fluent, but very well versed in Spanish. Like you could drop me in Spain or Mexico or whatever and I could get myself back. I could get myself to where I was going. That's kind of what I tell people. Like I had a very good working knowledge of Spanish. And there's a point with language, which I never got to, where you don't, when someone's talking to you in a different language, in your non-foreign language, where you have to translate it, like someone's talking to me in Spanish, I have to translate that into English. Okay, this is what he said. Then I have to think about what I want to say in English. I have to translate that in my head to Spanish, and then I speak that out loud, right? And that's a very manual and mechanical process of how to learn a language. And if you've tried to learn a language, I think most people have tried at some point, even if you're in your high school classes, whatever. It's like a mechanical process of being like, okay, this is what I want to say. Think about what each individual words are. Okay, what order do they go in? Okay, now say it, right? That is kind of what working out at the beginning feels like, where you have to think about working out. Like, okay, I have to work out today. Like, it's a very, like, you have to strum up the motivation and you really have to, like, energy and momentum and inertia into that process. But after you've done it enough times, it just happens. Like people are like, Brittany, how are you motivated to work out, you know, five times a week? And I'm like, I don't know anymore. I just do it. It's not a question. Some days I skip. Sure. Of course. I'm human. But I've been doing it for so long that the consistency is so baked in. I just look at my day and I say, when am I gonna work out today? It just happens. Again, most days are not, I'm not perfect. And when you start to get like that, where I'm no longer translating the motivation to work out in my life, I'm just doing it. Instead of someone speaking to me Spanish, And me having to translate that in my head, I'm just hearing the Spanish, knowing what it means initially, automatically, and then I'm talking straight back to them in Spanish, okay? That's where you want to get to, and when you see the signs of that happening, celebrating it. Point number two is pretty obvious. It's a little on the nose, but are you lifting heavier? And this does not always mean, so, and the next two examples of signs of progress are kind of similar. So let's take just a basic, let's say our workout calls for three sets of 10 bicep curls with, you know, 30 seconds to a minute rest, okay? If you can right now do three sets of 10 bicep curls with 10 pounds, wonderful, bravo, love it. If you then been doing 10 pounds for a while and it feels pretty good, you start to use 12 pounds or maybe 15. We'll do 15 pounds because it feels like it's a big difference. Maybe then you can do the first set with 15 pounds and then the second and third set have to be with 10. That is freaking progress, okay? So many people are like, oh, but I can't do the entire thing with 15. I don't give a shit. Celebrate the fact each individual rep that you can lift heavier, Celebrate that. And that's how it should look. It's not like you go from doing three sets of 10 reps at 10 pounds to three sets of 10 reps at 15 pounds just all at once, okay? I say this a lot with push-ups on the toes too. People just think that they're gonna be able to do a ton of push-ups on their knees and then suddenly one day they're gonna try to do push-ups on their toes and it's just gonna translate. It doesn't work that way. You start by doing one or two reps, either with the heavier weight or doing them on your toes. And then you finish the rest with a lighter weight. And over time, you'll notice how maybe you could have done three. You did the first set with 15 pounds and then three reps of that second set. And then eventually that whole second set. And then eventually you'll get to all three sets at 15 pounds. But First of all, you got to try. That's kind of the subcontext of that is that you have to be willing to try heavier weight. I did that in my workout today. I've been doing, I've been trying to, uh, do more, uh, with my shoulder presses. I'm in my room right now doing a shoulder press. I couldn't remember what that was called. Uh, a bench supported shoulder press. So not just standing. Cause when you're supported in your back with a bench, you're going to be able to lift heavier than you will when you're just standing upright. Cause you got to, uh, you don't have to use your core way more when you're standing up than when you've got a bench. Uh, so I've been at like 30 pounds for that. Like just a shoulder press, uh, bench supported for a long time. And so today I tried 35s and I did it. I was proud of myself. I did not do a ton of reps, but I was like, hell yeah, girl, you're doing it. Okay. Celebrate when you're able to lift heavier, even if it's not for the entire set. Now, point number three is kind of that same point, but remixed a little bit different. Can you do more reps at your current weight? Okay. So now this is a little tricky, right? All right. This one's a little tricky because to get stronger, I need you to lift heavier generally. OK, it's not like doing if you can do three sets of bicep curls with 10 pounds, which I could do. I can check. I can do that. Me suddenly doing. 10 sets of 10 reps doesn't make me stronger. At a certain point, you're no longer strengthening the muscle and you're just building the endurance of a muscle, okay? Does that make sense? Kind of with running, right? Like you can, just because you can run longer does not mean that you run faster. You generally slow down. To run longer, you generally slow down to do that and then you're working on your endurance to be able to last longer. So there's some caveats to this one, but... If you've been using 10 pounds and you've been doing that three sets of 10 pounds for your bicep curls, three sets of 10 reps at 10 pounds for your bicep curls, and suddenly you can do four sets or maybe you can do three sets of 12, three sets of 15. The fact that you're able to do it, I'm not saying that you always should. I guess my disclaimer is that more reps doesn't always equal better. That's my succinct way of saying that. But with that in mind, maybe you don't have access to a higher dumbbell. Maybe, you know, cash is strapped tight. I get it. Holidays are coming. You need to say for your kids, you don't want to buy new dumbbells. OK, I'm not going to hate that. Like I get we all got our things that we got to deal with. Can you do more reps at your current weight? That's a win. OK, that's a huge win. And I think that there are times when like it's just heavier, heavier, heavier, heavier, heavier, heavier, heavier. And like, I remember someone sent me a DM and I probably get one of these at least once a year where someone's like, is the goal just to always be lifting heavier forever for eternity? So at some point I'm just going to be lifting like a thousand pounds. Like, like she was like, I don't understand the concept of progressive overload because if I constantly have to be lifting heavier for forever to get stronger, like how does that work? over time and this is one of those things that happens is it's not always about lifting heavier it's about being able to do more volume at that weight okay it's about being able to for me sure one day i'm going to be able to do my shoulder press with 35 pounds and i'm going to be grateful right but today i did that 35 pound shoulder press and i was dead tired okay I had to give myself a long ass break and then I did some more shoulder stuff and I could tell that my shoulders were like super tired the goal is to be able to do that 35 pound shoulder press be able to recover and then also be able to do the you know high pulls and the the lateral raises and the front raises and all the other things that I did um and be able to do those at heavier um at heavier weights too so it's not just about the pound it is is about the you're using or the kilo, whatever your metric is in the country that you're in. It's not necessarily about the amount of load. It's also about the volume of work, the number of sets and reps you can get done, not even in an individual workout, but in an individual week, okay? How much volume can you get done for a particular muscle and still be able to recover, right? Because we need, that's important, all right? Okay. Oh, that's actually a great segue into number four. Can you recover faster? People always forget this one. And then I'll point it out to people and they're like, holy shit, this is like my little hack, my little life hack. If you're looking for a positive thing that you can latch yourself onto, to leach yourself into, to find progress in your workout, pay attention to how fast it takes you to recover in between sets and in between workouts. It will make you feel proud of yourself and I very much have felt this one recently as I was coming back into fitness off of pregnancy and so I'm starting kind of like I'm gonna say bare bones in the sense of like I'm starting as like a beginner right especially after a c-section because I took a lot of time off multiple months of like not doing anything at all not lifting a weight nothing so I kind of was starting as like a true beginner again so like my weights um were pound my load was way lower than it had been previously um and so you're starting and everything feels hard and you're having to take a lot of breaks okay and that 30 60 second rest the sweat back sweat sweat app gives you sometimes I would click pause and I would let that 60 second rest be a 90 second rest okay or I would be finished with a set and I'd kind of be out of breath a little bit um or I would be super sore you know how it is when you're first starting a new workout routine oh you get so freaking sore at the beginning and it would take like days for the soreness to go away like two three four days which that's the kind of soreness that you don't that's not a good soreness soreness is um always thought of as a good thing and it's not okay there is such thing as a bad soreness you don't want to be too sore it probably means you did too much too soon so When you start seeing those signs that, man, this exact workout made me sore for four days and now I did it. and I was sore for one day or I was barely sore and I did the exact same weights and everything, that's a sign of progress. It's a sign of your body adapting to the challenge and to the load that you gave it. Even within your workout, okay, if you were doing those three sets of 10 bicep curls at 10 pounds and that used to gas you. After, when you were done with that 10 reps, you drop those weights and you're like, whew, thank God that beep came or I guess it's not a beep because it's not a timer, but thank God the reps Rest is here, right? Like, thank God I needed that rest. And maybe a month later, you do the three sets of 10 reps at 10 pounds. And when it's done, you're like, I could have done 20 reps. First of all, that's the that's the telltale sign that it's time to lift heavier. just so you know. If you aren't begging for the rest when it gets there, when you aren't doing a little celebration dance in your head when you get to the last rep of an exercise, it's a sign that you should go heavier. All right, just so you know that. So if you're able to recover faster, if you're getting to the point to where in between reps, in between sets, and in between workouts, you're able to get back to a baseline from a heart rate perspective, from a soreness perspective, from a mobility perspective, just able to move your body in a way and be able to perform well with good form faster that's a huge win no one celebrates that but that is such a big deal like as a fitness trainer those are the signs like when i'm working with someone one-on-one those are the signs that i am looking for like this is the cheat code guys on how you know when it's time to progress because it's not like a a science that's down to a number oh after six weeks we try a heavier weight after six weeks we make go to three sets to four sets there is a plan Always, especially with online fitness where I can't see you, right? Like I can't physically see how you're doing in all of the workouts. There is a science to generally, in a generalized sense, how to move someone up. and how to progress them over time. But when you're working out on your own, you are also, when it comes to the actual dumbbell size, you are going to have to look at what's happening in your own body and know when to progress because I can't tell you that. These are the signs you look for. When you start recovering faster, when that 10 pound, that 10 rep set, feels like I could have done 12 or 15 seconds into your 60 second rest. You feel like you could go again. You're not huffing and puffing. That's a sign that you are making progress and it needs to be celebrated and you probably need to lift heavier at that point. Okay. And the number five, number five, the very last one is the quintessential one that everyone forgets. And it's so, it's the most important. If one through four have never happened to you, you have never felt consistent. You have never felt like you've increased your weight. You're doing bar workouts and you're stuck with those two pound dumbbells. If you feel like you cannot do more reps, nothing. You feel like you don't recover. You're always sore for First of all, maybe if all those things have happened, I would maybe go see someone. I'd maybe go see a doctor, a physical therapist, a personal trainer, somebody. But that's aside. But if all those things have happened and you still cannot find a positive, you cannot find signs of progress, I'm going to ask you this one question. Since you have been focusing on your health and on your fitness, are you a happier person? Do you go into your day with a little bit more pep in your step? Do you go about life with a little bit more pride for what you do, for your work, for your relationships? Are you happy to see your loved ones? Are you happy to wake up in the morning? Do you find joy in the things in your life? And I am not talking about your workouts. Other things. Do you find joy in those things more often? Do you feel more resilient in yourself? Do you feel more capable? Do you feel more motivated? Okay? Okay? So if you are working out or you're doing your twerking classes on YouTube, again, working out and fitness is a broad spectrum in my book. It really is. Movement is what it should be called. Are you moving more throughout your day? And as you have moved more, are you finding that you are also going about your day in a happier state? If the answer is yes, fuck yeah, hell yeah, I'm proud of you. I celebrate the hell out of that. That is the biggest sign of progress. If you feel like you are just going through the motions, okay? Postpartum is a perfect example of this because a lot of these things, recovery, lifting heavier, being able to do more reps and being more consistent, aren't really things you always have access to during postpartum, right? Especially if you're breastfeeding because your body... is not reverting back to its normal self, its default self, okay? It's still rushing through hormones and doing all the things so you can provide for your kid. So a lot of times you don't have these tools in your tool belt to hold on to to feel like you're getting better, okay? So if the only thing you have to hold on to, the only sign of progress, the only milestone that you have is that when you finish your workout, you are happy. Gosh, girl, hold on to that. Hold on to that and take it with you throughout your day. Because if I can get you to be happy after your 30 minute, one hour workout, and we can build that happiness into a bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger bucket at the end of your workout, you will accomplish amazing things in the rest of your day. Give me one hour to help better the other 23 hours of your day. Okay, that's how I need you to be thinking about your workouts. Sometimes it isn't all about the nitty gritty performance. How many pushups can I do on my toes? Oh my God, my shoulder. I'm seeing my shoulder cap come through. I've really been working on defining my muscles. I don't give a shit, girl. I don't care what you look like. I care about what's going on in between your ears, in that brain space of yours. I care about your heart tickering and beating and having a flutter and a fire in your heart because you are happy about the things in your life that make you show up with love and with respect and as a better person. Okay. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, like I'm not the perfect trainer for someone who like has really specific body. Like, oh, I want to have a six pack and I want massive muscles and I want cool. I can help you get there. I know that. But what makes me happy is is seeing my clients, yes, improve their body composition and their physique 100%. That is on the table. I got you, girl. That is my goal too. But I also want you to be happy. I don't want you to do it at the expense of your happiness. So if that happiness is all you have, meaning you aren't seeing any sort of change at all in your body, maybe actually that's fine for you. Because there's plenty of people who also don't subscribe to I need to look a certain way. I think especially as we get older, like I just don't care that I don't have a six pack. I don't care. I mean, of course I would love one. I would love a six pack. I would love a six pack. Don't get me wrong. I will admit that. I will scream that from the rooftops. But I know that the lifestyle I would have to live to have a six pack would be effing miserable. So I don't do it.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because happiness to me is a sign of progress throughout my life, but definitely in my workouts. I want to finish my workout. I want to finish every single meal and I want to feel happy. And the more often that I can do things in my life where when I am done, when I've completed the task, I feel happy. I know I'm moving forward. I know I've got signs of progress. So even if there are things in your life where you're looking for, man, I am so far. The distance between the life that you want to live and the life that you're currently living is really freaking far apart. If you're like, I am nowhere close to where I want to go. And it can be so daunting. It can be so daunting when you've got a big goal, career goal, you're trying to run a marathon, I don't care, whatever it is, you've got a big goal out in front of you. It can be so daunting to feel like you're never going to get there. So I want you to look at this journey and find moments where I am happier today, this week, this month, than I was yesterday, last week, last month. And you celebrate the hell out of that. That is how we build consistency. That is how we lift heavier. That is how we do more reps and that is how we recover faster. Because if you are happier, then you will be more consistent and then you will lift heavier and then you will do more reps and then you will recover faster and then it becomes a cycle and it all starts to repeat itself. And then you just build into this lifestyle where you're just like me, you're just working out every single day. Because I don't know any better. The concept of not working out just does not compute in my head because I've been doing it for so long that it's like brushing my teeth. Why do I brush my teeth? I'm not motivated to brush my teeth every day. It's just what you do. Someone gave me a toothbrush at a young age and said, do this twice a day, every day. And I said, okay. And here I am at 36 doing it. Not twice a day, every day, because sometimes I need to rush in the mornings, but I always end the night brushing my teeth. Always. Most days I get twice. Workouts are the same way. It's that this is the framework, the formula that you need to apply. You need to obsess with every single one of these little details to a healthy level, really obsessed over that last one, being happier, and you will start to notice how health and fitness becomes so ingrained into the process that it no longer feels like a process. It no longer feels like you are translating Spanish into English and then English back into Spanish. You're just speaking Spanish. Hola, como estas? You know what I'm saying? You're just letting it roll. I really need to take Spanish classes or something again, you guys. I really do. I used to know I took Spanish through college for no reason. Rice University, where I went to college, does not have core curriculum requirements. You don't have to take an English, a history, a social studies, or whatever, a language. You can take whatever classes you want. You just got to get your classes for the major. I did not have to take a language at all. But I took Spanish almost every year because I just felt like I should. I also dated a Mexican guy like from Mexico, not like, oh, he has Mexican family. Like he was like English was very much his second language. I would like help him write his papers and stuff because like he wouldn't know half the words because he was very, very much. Like English is my second language. So like, and also, by the way, I live in Texas where there's a huge Hispanic population and a lot of Spanish is spoken. So I just was around Spanish a lot. And then I moved to Baltimore where, oh, fun fact, there's not a lot of Spanish speaking people. And I no longer was with my Spanish speaking boyfriend. Actually, ironic, the boyfriend that I was with in Baltimore did speak Spanish too, but we never really, we never really spoke Spanish to each other. And then it dried up. and now all I've got is hola I mean that's not true I can say a lot more Spanish but like it's just funny how like if you do not lose it your brain will let that shit evaporate like I like let's literally say I spoke Spanish every single day for 23 years okay I mean maybe not when I was a kid so maybe we'll say If I started speaking Spanish when I was 6 to 23, what is that math? Ooh, 17 years? For 17 years of my life, I spoke Spanish and I got nothing to show for it. Nothing. You drop me in Mexico and I would be, ooh, I would struggle. I know the individual words, but I can't like conjugate and put sentences together. Anyways, you don't need to know about my Spanish speaking skills, but that would be a good little like goal, like to Duolingo something or another. Maybe I'll do that one day. Maybe that'll be my New Year's resolution. So you guys know I'm not big on New Year's resolution, but that's actually a good idea. If someone could remind me that, like I need to set an alarm, like a Christmas alarm. Don't forget to Duolingo in 2025. I might do that. This isn't an ad or anything, but if anyone's down to learn Spanish with me in 2025, you let me know. I need it to be be easy though and I feel like I've heard some good things about Duolingo so maybe this is what we do okay okay look at us that wasn't that one I just gotten getting new goals coming out the end of the podcast okay friends thank you so much for listening if you have any questions comments concerns about today's topic I love to continue the conversation of the podcast um in my dms on instagram please reach out to me would love it um Please rate, review, subscribe to the podcast. And I'll see you in two weeks. Hopefully with another great update about Blake and daycare. Hopefully everything's going great. I think next time... Yeah, next time that we will be reconvening on this podcast, Rob is going on a trip. He's going to Europe for two weeks. Okay? So you know how I left Rob for two weeks to go to Australia in March? Now he's going to Europe for work for two weeks. And so I'm solo parenting for two weeks. So... I'm sure you're going to have plenty of stories about that on the podcast because I'm pretty for sure. Hold on. Let me look at a calendar. Our next podcast. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. So the next podcast will be on the 26th. Sorry, the 27th. And I'll be one week in. I'll be one week in. OK, so you'll have plenty of stories about Britney's solo parenting. Me and Blake, girls night every night. All right, friends. Thank you for listening. I love each and every one of you. Go have a happy Filter Free Friday.
UNKNOWN:you