Day 3: Running Reignited: 5 Day Challenge

Welcome to Day 3 of the Running Reignited Challenge!

You're halfway through—and today’s focus is a big one.

We’ve already explored:

✅ WHO you are as a runner right now and who you have been
✅ WHAT is really going on in your body after 40 and what kind of training works best for women in this season

And now it’s time to ask:

📍 WHERE Is Your Strength and Energy Coming From?

…and where is your energy leaking away without you even realizing it?

If you’ve been relying on cardio alone to stay fit, energized, or lean…
If you’ve noticed slower paces, more fatigue, or nagging injuries…
You’re not doing anything wrong.

You’re just missing a key piece of the puzzle.

Strength and muscle are now the foundation of your energy and performance.
Without them, everything else—endurance, recovery, metabolism, even your mindset—becomes harder than it needs to be.

✅ TODAY’S ACTION: STRENGTH & MOBILITY SELF-CHECK

Today, we’re going to uncover where your body may be leaking energy or compensating in ways that don’t serve you anymore.

1️⃣ Single-Leg Sit-to-Stand Test

• Sit in a chair and try to stand using one leg (no hands)
• Repeat as many reps as you can on each side
• Note wobbling, imbalances, or fatigue

👉 Watch the demo video

2️⃣ Overhead Deep Squat

• Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and arms raised overhead
• Perform a deep squat, keeping heels down and arms overhead
• Hold at the bottom
• Note if your heels lift, arms fall forward, or if you feel tightness or pain

👉 Watch the demo video

3️⃣ Nutrition Check-In

• Are you eating before your runs or strength sessions
• How soon after waking do you eat?
• Do you get hangry, have cravings, or skip meals?

📥 You’ll find today’s instructions and journaling prompts in the workbook:

 👉 Access Day 3 Materials ➝ DOWNLOAD HERE

Today’s training is where we start rebuilding your body from the inside out. We’ll cover:

💥 Why strength and muscle matter now more than ever
💥 Where most runners are losing energy and slowing down
💥 Where strength training needs to live in your routine
💥 Where under-fueling may be sabotaging your recovery, metabolism, and performance

Your self-check,

✨ Where did you feel strong—and where do you feel a gap?
✨ Are you supporting your strength through fueling… or unknowingly sabotaging it?

Every woman in this group is working on building a stronger foundation—an

Thanks for Listening!!

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:00

Cloud. All right, y'all, welcome to day three. It's day three of the Running Reignited Challenge, and I am so glad that you have all decided to join me today because today we're talking about one of my favorite topics. And if you gain nothing from this challenge, I hope you walk away from this. I shouldn't say gain nothing. If you only gain one thing from this challenge, I hope that you walk away. With something from today, something from day one too, because day one was really powerful. But today we're gonna be talking about strength. So before we jump into where is your strength and energy coming from? We wanna do a little recap. Okay. So, so far we've talked about who you are as a runner, who you have been, and who you want to be moving forward, and also what's going on in your body. And now it's time to look at where your strength and energy truly come from and how some of the choices and some of the things that we've been taught in the past have been actually taking strength away. So we wanna stop that and we want to. Build more strength and we're gonna talk a lot about that today. So before we get into that, how was your experience yesterday with day two? I know some of you, well, there was a good amount of you yesterday that had already gone on the run and done the day two stuff, um, before the call, and we talked a little bit about it yesterday. But for those of you that did not do it, how did it feel slowing down, like your level two run? How did that feel? Your strides? How? How were those for you guys? Let me know in the chat, just like what was that experience like for you? Was it fun? Was it difficult? Did you feel good? Because some of you might have noticed that like slowing down. Might have felt harder than expected, or maybe you've realized that you've really been over-relying on pushing yourself harder. Right. That, that, that mental chatter that came up for you when it was time to slow down. Very hard to go L two. Yeah. I feel like I could walk faster, but the strides so cool to run that fast, even for just a short period of time. Exactly. It's hard to run slowly and not feel like you should. Yeah. And should go faster. Exactly. Cheryl. Hard to change the mindset to slow down, but it was enjoyable as Cindy, that is so beautiful and I want you to really tap into that. Okay. Because yes, it can be weird. It can be kind of awkward and kind of difficult the first time that you try to slow down, but it was enjoyable, right? When's the last time a run felt enjoyable? Before this? Ask yourself that question, right? For a lot of people, it's been a while, especially when we start going through these changes in perimenopause. And menopause. Right. Fun and felt great. So good. Yeah. Nose breathing, a hundred percent. Nice, Cindy. Good job. All right, so let's talk a little bit about the shift in our foundation. Uh, yes, we can definitely send you the link, Cheryl. No problem. Um, for the replays, we, all of our replays, for those of you guys that have maybe missed some of our live, I'm gonna put the replay link right now in the chat reel. Life runners.com/five dc That's the link. Okay. That's our challenge access page. Everything is on that page, so all the replays, all of the daily, um, content, everything is on that pla, that page. All right, so let's talk about. What we need to focus on moving forward, because a lot of us have grown up or gotten into running with this idea that we need to run more. And we talked a little bit about that yesterday. Push harder, run more, do more. And we've also been raised in the generations. That tell, have told us that cardio is key. That if you wanna lose weight, if you wanna be have a, the body that you wanna have, you have to do more cardio. Right? Just gimme a yes in the chat if ever you believed that to have a body that you wanna have, you just have to do more cardio. It's a reason that a lot of people actually get into running, right? I know that I was, I was definitely believe this. So. Today I'm gonna talk to you and make a case for why we need to flip the script, especially after 40 Jane Fonda. Exactly right. Absolutely. Step aerobics, you know, all those fun things. Yeah. Um. I saw a video the other day on Instagram of people doing like it was a step class. Remember those like steppers? It was a step class and people doing this amazing choreographed dance to, um, yeah, jazzercise to, uh, smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. It was awesome. It was so fun to watch. Okay, so after the age of 35. We start losing muscle. This is a natural phenomenon that happens in our body. It's called sarcopenia. And after 40 and in perimenopause and menopause, as our hormones start to shift, this accelerates with literally without us doing anything. Okay? So we are just lose. We just start losing muscle, start losing lean muscle. We actually also start losing bone. And when we lose muscle, if we have less muscle, we have a slower metabolism, we have increased fatigue and injury risk, poor glucose regulation, your blood sugar, lower power and performance, any of these sound familiar, right? Lot of these are the symptoms that a lot of women are experiencing during perimenopause and menopause, right? How many of you came in? I, I was like looking at some of the data today from those of you that joined the Facebook room of, you know, I asked you what kinds of things have you been experiencing lately? Fatigue was number one. Oh, actually fatigue was number two. Unwanted weight gain was number one, fatigue was number two. And then aches and pains I believe was number three. Um, and then what else do we have? The other choices were motivation, lack of motivation. And slower paces. Okay, so, but it's normal. Yeah. It's just your age. Exactly. Beth. Right. This is what we've been told. Well, I guess it's just your age, I guess. You gotta pull back, I guess you don't have to, you shouldn't be doing as much. Right. Baloney call BS on that junk. Okay. It's a baloney and I'm gonna keep it PG for all of you. Okay? Just because I don't wanna offend anybody. It's baloney. This is happening. These symptoms that you are experiencing, there's a lot of reasons, but a big reason is the hormone shifts that we're having and the loss of muscle. Loss of muscle is one of the biggest problems plaguing women after 40 wording. When you lose lean muscle. Obviously you're not as strong. When you're not as strong. Guess what happens, especially as you continue to lose lean muscle, because it's not like it stops. It just continues. It starts at 35, and if you live to be 85, that's 50 years of muscle loss, progressive muscle loss. What do you think disability comes from? Where do you think chronic pain comes from? Where do you think arthritis comes from? People wanna tell you that it's genetic. People wanna tell you it's from running. Yes, there's a genetic component to arthritis. There is okay, but running doesn't cause it. There's been studies that have actually shown that running is protective against arthritis. Runners actually have less knee osteoarthritis versus non-runners. Yay. Isn't this great news, right? How many people have told you running is bad for your knees? Also BS call bologna on'em. Okay? Not true. The problem is lean muscle mass. The problem is that we are losing muscle and so the solution is what we have to build more muscle because we have been taught to shrink as women. We have been taught to lose weight. You'll be happier if you lose weight, if you have a smaller body, if you take up less space, if you chase being skinny. But that does not serve you anymore, I promise you, because when you focus on skinny and losing weight and the numbers on the scale, guess what? You lose muscle in the process. When you lose weight, you don't just lose fat, you also lose muscle. And when you lose weight, and we're gonna be talking more about nutrition tomorrow. Oh no today, that's today too. When you focus on losing weight via calorie restriction, how many of you have ever been on a diet? Gimme a me in the chat. I'll raise my hand.'cause I have been on lots of diets in my life. Yep. Yep. Exactly why?'cause we wanna lose weight. Why do you wanna lose weight? Those of you that said you have unwanted weight gain, tell me in the chat, why do you wanna lose weight? What is it that you think losing weight will give you? And there's no wrong answers here, okay? I'm not gonna judge you if you're like, I just wanna look better in a bathing suit. Okay? Zero judgment here. Energy and confidence. Good self-confidence. My BMI is way too high. Okay. And cholesterol to fit in my clothes better. Unstoppable belly appearance was. Traumatic confidence. Make my husband happy to look at me. Okay. So that's probably confidence related too, right? So I think confidence is a big one here. We think that being smaller will give us more confidence. Being skinnier, losing weight will give us more confidence. Right? How so? When? When, if that's true for you? Again, there's nothing wrong because that's what we've been taught for decades now. We've been taught, we've seen it on magazine covers and on TV and in movies. The beautiful women that have the thin bodies are the one that the men are attracted to or the ones that get, you know, whatever thing they get in the movie. Right. They're in the promotion, they get the guy. A lot of getting the guy, like, especially if you're on, you know, into the romcoms. Right. But make me feel sluggish. Okay, but how do you know that's related to your weight? Right. Fitting better in my clothes. Okay. My BMI, my cholesterol, my energy, energy levels. We assume that if we look weighed less, we would have more energy, we would have more confidence. Right? But this could be an incorrect association. It's possible, right? I'm not telling you you're wrong, but I'm, I'm just thinking, all right. If you are constantly restricting calories and not giving your body. Food. What? What does food provide? What? What are calories? Do you guys know what calories are? Yep. Calories are a unit of energy. Exactly. Calories are a measure of energy, so we restrict calories thinking that we're gonna get more energy and that's interesting. Guess what? Diet culture has been telling us. Right? Okay. Nothing wrong with you. This has just been the narrative that we have has been perpetuated over and over and over. And guess what else happens when you lose weight? If you restrict calories and you lose weight, 25 to 50% of the weight that you lose is muscle. Okay, let that sink in for a second. Do any of you want to lose muscle? No. When you say you wanna lose weight, we really wanna lose fat, right? We don't wanna lose muscle, but 25 to 50% of your weight loss is muscle. Some of it's water, some of it's fat, some of it's other things. That's insane. Yeah. All right. You ready for the scarier statistics, Cindy? Because when you gain that weight back, since diets are not sustainable. Right. People restrict and then they start eating again because their energy's low. Other things are problematic. They go back to eating because they're just hungry all the time. When you gain that weight back, 80% of that weight gained back is fat. That's wild. So every diet cycle you go on, you're restricting calories, you're losing muscle, and then you gain that weight back and it comes back as fat. 80% of that is fat. Okay, so your body composition is changing for the worse every single time you go through that. So this is why it's so important for us because now we understand, okay, my body's already losing muscle just, but because I'm over the age of 35 now, my muscle loss accelerates because I'm also losing estrogen. During perimenopause or post menopause. So that actually accelerates muscle loss. And then I restrict calories because, and so that's also taking away some of my muscle and then I'm pushing harder and running more, which is actually breaking your muscle down. So this is why our training in our nutrition choices are so important, because we don't wanna be breaking our bodies down. We wanna be building stronger bodies. Gimme a yes. Actually gimme an amen in the chat if you wanna build a stronger body. Okay? Amen. All right. Not a religious thing, okay, but amen. Right? Amen. Just means like it is. So I wanna build strength. So what do we need to do? We need to change our focus. We have to shift our focus to strong over skinny. Building over losing because if you are not actively building muscle and bone, you are losing it. And if you are training harder and pushing harder and overstressed, you're accelerating that loss. One in two women will experience a fracture from osteoporosis at some point in their life. One in two. That is a scary statistic. I don't wanna be one of those, and I don't want any of you to be one of those. I wanna help start reversing that statistic. Okay, so how do we build stronger muscles and bones? Are you guys with me on? Okay. We have to start to shift our focus here, right? Because muscle. Is like your body's engine. If you want more power, more energy, more speed, you need to build a bigger engine. Muscle is also like the body of a car, your foundation. You have to have a strong foundation so that when you run and when you go faster and do all these other things, you're not breaking your body down in the process. One of the biggest things that I saw as a physical therapist is that when people came in with pain, it was almost always associated weak with weakness. There was some sort of weakness in the body. Joints break down because you don't have the strength to absorb the forces and to protect the joints. Okay, so people that have chronic knee pain, chronic hip pain, all these issues. If it is joint related, it's often because they don't have the strength in the surrounding muscles to help absorb those forces, so those forces go through the joints and start to break down the bone instead. Okay, so I. You guys know I'm a physical therapist. I, I strength train everybody. Everybody gets exercise is all right. Like, because electric, stem and ultrasound and like some of those other things you do in physical therapy, like they can be helpful, but that's not gonna heal you. Getting your muscles stronger will every single time. Okay. Muscle is your key to longevity. They're actually doing studies now that show that the greater, the more lean muscle mass you have when you're older, the longer you live muscle is literally the organ of longevity. Your grip strength is actually predictive to your level of independence and longevity when you get older. Grip strength, very important. Correlation, not causation, but still there's a correlation there. Okay, so are we on board? There are 22 of you. There's 22 people here right now. Give me a one in the chat if you are on board that we need to start building muscle at this point in our life. I'm gonna count, make sure all of you are on board with this, okay. Because quite honestly, if you don't believe this, this is not the right place for you because all my members here will tell you. I will tell you so that I am blue in the face. I'm like this color. We have to strength train y'all. This is, this is non-negotiable anymore after 40 strength training is non-negotiable. You cannot just run and be okay if you just run and you ignore strength training. You will break your body down. I know that's a very bold claim for me to make, but I am willing to make it. That's a hill I'm willing to to die on. We have to be strength training because I don't want you old and frail and not able to get off the toilet. That's another thing we have to look about at. Right. I know that that's something that really resonated with a lot of you on day one is like this is something that, a gift that you're giving to your 80-year-old self. What you do today is going to affect who you are and what you're able to do when you're 50 and 60 and 70, and 80, and 90, and however long you live. And muscle is the key. All right, so we're all on board here. We all believe, okay, I get it. You're kind of, you're kind of harping on it a little bit, but we gotta do some things here to build some muscle and build some bone, right? We gotta have stronger muscles and stronger bones. It's going to, not only, it's gonna help you as a runner too. When you have stronger muscles, you're gonna be able to run faster. You're gonna be able to run longer. Your muscles aren't gonna fatigue as quickly. Remember the analogy I used yesterday with like picking up a couch. When you pick up a couch, if you're having more muscle, if you have more muscle and more muscle fibers firing all at the same time, it's gonna be easier. Life becomes easier when you're stronger. Okay, so women are like, all right, yes. Building muscle does strengthen your bones bath. That's the other beautiful thing I'm about to tell you about. So some common strength mistakes that runners make. Okay. You're like, all right, I get it. I have to strength train. Um, a couple common things that I see people thinking that they have to just do. I just do body weight exercises or yoga, right? Those can be helpful. Nothing wrong with those. Those are great places to start. I love yoga, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't replace strength training. Body weight exercises are a fantastic place to start, especially if you have no weights, especially if you're new to strength training. Great place to start, but then we have to progress you. Another common mistake I see runners making is thinking that they, they can just go to YouTube. And find a workout strength training for runners. Okay, great. Some of those workouts are actually really good. I'll be honest with you guys. Some of those workouts are great, some of them are not. Some of them are like hit style, uh, higher high interval intensity training that it's gonna give you a cardio with it and it's like you get enough cardio in your running. When it's a strength day, we have to feel, we have to focus on building strength. Okay. People think, oh, I, but I, Angie, I don't wanna get bulky. I don't wanna be like one of those muscle girls. Anybody think that? Okay, it takes a lot of effort to get bulky. You doing some strength training beside your running is not gonna make you a bulky. She Hulk, I promise, takes a lot of effort to get that way. All right. Yeah. It's why I avoided strength training before real life runners. All right. And that's good to know, right? That's good to know. But how many of you that said you wanted to lose weight? When you think about the body that you want to see in the mirror, does that body include muscle definition or does that body just look like straight and flabby even though you're skinny? I am guessing it has some muscle definition. Right. Maybe not bulky, but you probably wanna see some muscle there. Yeah, I wanna be toned. Yeah. We can make muscles in bulk. Beautiful. We can for sure. I'm on, I'm on board. I only focus on the parts I wanna change. Muscle definition for sure. Yeah. So that's the other myth, Cindy. Um, this idea of being toned, right? People think that there is a different way that you're supposed to lift so that you can look toned, which in my definition of for the way that I understand toned, and please correct me if you have a different direct definition, is like lean, but muscular, right? That is what I think of when I think of like toned, right? So we want to, and a lot of people wanna spot treat. People are like, yeah, well I don't want like big arms, but I'd like a six pack. Right? They wanna like spot, treat the body. That doesn't work. Or we have to build muscle everywhere because muscle is your energy source. Muscle is your powerhouse muscle is so, so good for you. Why? Because when you have more lean muscle mass, your body burns more energy, a k, a calories at rest. So it actually speeds up your metabolism. And one of the issues that so many runners have in midlife is a slower metabolism because of the loss of estrogen and progesterone that slows down our metabolism. Okay? Building lean muscle helps to improve and speed up your metabolism. Your resting metabolism isn't that beautiful. You actually burn more at rest without more work. That's a beautiful thing, right? Fantastic. Some people say, well, I lift, but I kind of do, like, I I just pick and choose. I, I, I have to mix it up. I have to keep a variety. I have to be entertained by my workouts. Please don't do that. Be boring. Let your lifting be boring. It's more effective. When it's boring, it can still be fun. I, I think it can still be fun and it engaging, but it's, you don't have to do something different every single time. You strength train. You don't have to confuse your muscles. There's a lot of people out there that tells, tell you that you have to confuse your muscles to keep your muscles, you know, confused.'cause that way they don't, you keep getting gains if you confuse your muscles, that's baloney. Baloney number three of the call. All right. You don't, your muscles don't need to be confused. Your muscles need to be progressively overloaded. What does that mean? It means you lift heavier and then you, your body adapts, and then you lift heavier and then your body adapts. It means that you increase the load on your muscles. This is what we do for running too progressive overload. Have you ever trained for a race? You start out maybe ru running a mile or two, and then you add on, and then you get used to that, and then you add on, and then you get used to that, right? You don't train for a marathon overnight. You have to progressively overload the body. So we know that for running, same principle applies to strength training. We have to progressively overload. That's how our muscles get stronger. All right. We have to be consistent as runners. We need to be strength training at least twice a week, three times, depending on your, your focus, two to three times a week. Very, very important. Okay. We have to focus on single leg exercises, right? There's a different way that we as runners, need to strength train, and this is another reason why a lot of those YouTube videos or random workouts that you find on different apps are not the most effective way for you to strength train. Remember, on day one when I had you add up all the hours you were spending on your fitness, again, it's not about doing more, it's about using that time more effectively. Because running, think about what running is. Running is jumping from one leg to the other over and over and over again. And in that split second, you take about 180 steps per minute so that your foot is landing so many times, right? Three times per second. So in that split second, your body has to stabilize itself and create power to propel you forward. So we have to start training our muscles like that. And when we don't do those types of exercises and overload the body, then when we go out and run and try to increase our distance, our muscles, and our tendons and things break down'cause they're not used to it. Is this all making sense? The other thing we need to focus on as runners is mobility. Mobility is the way that your body moves. Makes perfect sense. Fantastic. Mobility is the way that your body moves, and this is not, mobility is not stretching, right? Stretching can be mobility, but mobility is not stretching. So mobility is improving the quality and the range of your movement. And a lot of runners, especially if you are the kind of runner that just goes out and runs and doesn't do other things. You're training your body in one direction, in one plane, right? We, we run forward, but there's, your body is designed in three main planes of motion, and so we need to be strength training and using our mobility of our joints in all of those planes, especially because we live life in all three planes, right? It's not just about our running, it's about also feeling better in the rest of our lives. So we need to be able to move freely and have good quality of movement. All right, so those are some of the big things that we need to focus on when it comes to building strength as a runner. Okay. We have to focus on strength training, single leg strength training, power development, stability, which is like the single leg strength training, and then mobility. There's actually only four. All right. If you guys have any questions on. Strength for runners. Let put it, go ahead and put them in the chat because the, I wanna move on to also today to talk about fueling, because when we talk about strength and building strength and building muscle, we have to also talk about nutrition. We also have to talk about fuel. So to answer your question, I forgot to, um, I think it was Beth that mentioned about building muscle, also building bone or strength training, building bone. Uh, I forget what your question was, but yes. Resistance training, lifting weights, lifting heavier weights is a fantastic way to stimulate bone growth as well. And there's been many research studies that have shown that resistance training is a very effective way, and that you, even after menopause, can continue to build muscle and bone through strength training. Yes, creatine does help build muscle, and it actually is one of the most widely studied supplements that has very good results, especially for women over 40. Creatine is an excellent supplement for women to start taking for many reasons. Okay. All right, so let's talk about fueling, because muscle is not just built in the gym. Like I mentioned yesterday, when we exercise, we are actually building breaking our body down. We're actually breaking our muscle down. So when you lift heavy weights, when you run hard, you're breaking your muscles down and your body rebuilds stronger during rest and recovery as long as you're giving it the proper nutrition. Okay. Recovery with the right nutrients, that's where the rebuild happens. That's how we build muscle. That's how we build bone. And most women runners that I talk to are under fueling, meaning they're undereating because again, we've been taught to focus on skinny. We've been ta fo taught to focus on losing weight, and when we wanna lose weight, we restrict calories. Restricting calories can backfire in so many ways. Restricting calories can make you feel more tired. It can obviously lead to a lack of endurance and it can lead to further breakdown of your muscle and bone. And most runners are not eating enough period, and they're, and a lot of runners, most runners are definitely undereating when it comes to protein. Because in midlife we have what's called decreased anabolic sensitivity. That's a fun cocktail phrase, right? Decreased anabolic sensitivity. Okay. What does, what the heck does that mean, Angie? So. When you train, you're breaking your body down. That is a catabolic activity. So catabolic means breaking your body down. Anabolic means building your body back up stronger. Okay, so some fancy terms for you guys. So in midlife, it's harder for us to rebuild because of the loss of estrogen and progesterone, because of the increased stress on our nervous system that we talked about yesterday. So we have an increased need. Four good nutrition, because good nutrition is going to help your body rebuild. Especially when we look at protein. Protein is the building block of muscle, so we have to make sure that we're getting enough protein in our diets so that our body actually has the building materials that it needs to build stronger muscles and bones. The timing of your food also becomes very important. When you're eating makes a difference. And then of course your total intake. And like I mentioned, most runners that I talk to are not eating enough. And I know that's a wild thing to think about and a lot of you might be kind of doubting that right now. Like, what are you talking about? I eat all the time. Part of that, you know, if you find, if you think are are few, are someone that thinks that you are overeating. It could be because you're not giving your body the things that it actually needs, and so you're hungry all the time because your body is unsatisfied and it's trying to give you, hunger is a cue that I don't have what I need, right? So even if you're eating a lot of food, if you're not giving your body the right food at the right times. You're not going to get the gains that you want. You're not gonna build the muscle, you're gonna continue to gain weight, okay? Because the right food at the right time, when your body actually needs it, is absolutely critical. So if you're not fueling properly, you're not just underperforming, you're breaking your body down. And when we think about that 80-year-old self that we wanna keep in mind when you break down now. Imagine what that's gonna look like in 20 or 30 years. Right? So training without fuel is like trying to remodel a house without any building materials, right? You can't build a house if you don't have the cement to hold the cement blocks together, or you don't have the nails to hold the wood together. That's what our nutrition is. So there are no bad food groups. You need protein, you need carbohydrates, and you need healthy fats. All of them play a huge role in how your body responds to exercise. We need to be eating both before and after training, so things like low carbohydrate diets, intermittent fasting, or truly any diet that has a name. If there's a name to your diet, it's probably not giving you what you need. All right. Oh, I'm keto. I'm paleo. I'm intermittent fasting. If it's named, it's gonna be commercialized and commercialized. The diet industry is billions and billions of dollars to keep you unhappy and unsatisfied and choosing the next and confused so that you'll keep trying things and buying supplements and doing more things. It pays for them to keep you confused. Right. So who do you wanna trust? Who do you wanna trust? So are you supporting your strength? Thank you. Sarah, are you supporting your strength in your weekly training or are you just breaking your body down? All right, so how many of you did the action items for today so far? Did you do the single leg sit to stand test? What did you guys notice? Tell me in the chat, what did you notice with this single leg sit to stand? Was it was one leg easier than the other? Was it hard all around? Were you, were you able to do it? I know when I've done this in past challenges, there's some people that were, are completely unable to do it. Some people are really good on one side and then really, um, have really low repetitions on the other side. Yeah. Could only do five. One leg stronger than the other. Hard all around. Yep. I could do them because of training. Yep. Second leg was more difficult. It was tough. My, my left side sucks. Left is still stable, but better than six months ago. Good or less stable. Yeah. So you're noticing a difference, which is good'cause you've been working on it, Sarah. All right. Wobbling. Wobbling is okay. Right. All right. How many of you, so why did I have you guys do that test? Kind of, because of what I talked about before, how important it is to have single leg strength and stability as a runner, right? So that test is very, is a very good indicator of the strength and stability that you have on that side. What about the mobility test? What did you guys notice about the overhead squat test? Were you able to perform it without losing your balance or form or what? Much easier. Okay, good. Did you notice though, that it was hard to keep your arms up? Did you fall backwards? Did you have your heels lifted? Arms still go forward. Okay. Much easier though. Okay. That's good. Sort of failed on heels and arms. Okay. So the goal is there's like, it's not like a pass or fail kind of thing. It's like, okay, what are you noticing here? Can't get my arms straight up. Okay. So that might be a limitation in your shoulders or your upper back. Right. And that's part of like what that test is designed for is to help find some areas where mobility might be an issue For me, whenever I do that test, I fall backwards. Because I have limitations in my ankles, like I have limited ankle mobility. Um, I literally have a bony block that's there and I also have, um, tightness in my Achilles and calves. So when I put a a board underneath my heels, I can do it without a problem'cause it helps to take my ankles out of the equation. So again, it's just one of those tasks to help you start to get to know your body better. Okay. That's the whole point, because when you, again, start to train in a way that works with your body, your individual body, you're gonna start feeling a lot better and getting a lot better results. All right. How many of you eat before a run? Gimme a yes or a no in the chat. Do you usually eat before you run? Cool. That makes me happy. Good. Most of you are yeses. There are some of you that are nos and some that are sometimes okay. Yeah, that's fine. Whenever it, all right. Good. Yay. That makes me really happy because that's another myth that's out there is that you should run fasted or train fasted, meaning, not that you don't eat something before you workout, and that's another big myth that's out there that's really harming our ability to perform and build muscle. All right. Right now, on a scale of one to 10, how good would you say your overall nutrition is? Tell me in the chat. There we go. We got some 8, 7, 4. 7, 8, 6. Seven. Six. Cool. Six and a half. Four and a half. 5, 7, 8. Good. What led you to that number? I would love to know, like those of you that said, protein is hard. Okay. If you gave yourself an eight, seven, or an eight, what led you to that number? Um, work is busy. I forget to eat. Yep. I'm eating healthy, but not sure about the timing. Overall, quite healthy, but need to get more protein. Healthy eating. What, how do you guys define healthy eating? That's, I think another good question to, to ask yourself, and I don't think I put that down on, on the reflection sheet. Um, but that would be another good question to answer, right? Because that's another good thing to, to look at.'cause a lot of us that have been conditioned to like restrict and diet, what is the definition of healthy that we're actually going with? Yeah, definitely need more protein. More fruits and veggies. I overeat in the eating and don't eat enough during the day. Yeah, Lori, that's a big deal. Okay. Slowly me processed food. Yeah. Okay, cool. Macros are good most days, but not enough calories overall, so yeah. So you can see. But now, now you guys are starting to see, I hope, right? How all of these things are starting to work together. How? When you're going out and just running and pushing hard all the time, you're breaking your body down. How if you're not strength training and refueling, you're not getting, you're not getting the strength gains that we need. Yeah, avoiding fast. Okay. Feels healthy. Cool. Real food. Good Now. Here's the thing too, and this is one thing that I would caution y'all to, to do as well. Yes, I agree. Healthy whole foods, fruits and veggies, lean proteins, all those things. But we can also get to the point where like we're at extremes as well, right? So just be careful of that. I don't have enough time to jump into that today, but be careful and be aware because sometimes as runners, it's important for us to get in some faster acting calories. That maybe are not as quote unquote healthy, but will actually help your body when it comes to your performance. So that's where it starts to get into a gray area. And that's, those are things that we talk about a lot inside of our, our coaching, um, program as well, because there's a balance that we need to find. Right to make sure that we are giving our body all the things that it needs to build strong muscles and strong bones and the, the macronutrients. And the micronutrients, but also make sure that we're giving our body enough that it needs to perform. Okay. So the main shift that I want you guys to take away from today is what, or what are you guys taking away before I should, before I tell you, what are you gonna take away from today's call? What are one, what's one of your big takeaways so far from today? Peanut butter pie. Sounds delicious, Monique. Better not skip that. Strength training. Don't neglect strength training. Good. I need to start strength training again. Yes, Lisa. I need to lift more frequently. Add strength training. I. Strength training is a good thing. That's good. Yeah. Seeing strength training in terms of my whole body instead of focusing only on one part. Yes. Muscle is the key to long life. Absolutely. Okay. These are all great, great things. I'm lifting now during this call. Yeah. Charity Muscle is your energy source. It is one of'em, that's for sure. I love that. Did my strength earlier today, track weight, so I'm increasing over time. Okay. Excellent. Cool. Weight loss can mean muscle loss. Yeah. And I don't think, I'm glad that that's one of the things you're taking away, Diana, because I don't think that that's one of the things that we often think about. Can you share what boring strength training means to you? Um. I like strength training, so I don't find strength training boring personally, but um, basically what I mean is that you don't have to mix it up all the time. That doing some fundamental exercises and movement patterns, things like squats and deadlifts and lunges and other things like that, to make a well-rounded strength program, if you do the same thing and progressively overload yourself, you're going to continue to make gains. Is what I mean is that it doesn't have to be, you don't have to be changing things all the time. Okay? There can be benefits to kind of change and shift focus sometimes, but you still need to be hitting the fundamentals. So when I talk about boring strength training, that means hitting the fundamentals. Okay? Um, so then now you all understand that strength training is very important. Then the question becomes, well, what do I do? Right. What should I actually be doing? Should we change muscle groups in the week? Uh, Monique, there's a lot of different ways that you can arrange your strength training. And it, again, it depends on like your goal. I put good audio books and podcasts during lifting and it helps with boredom. There you go. I put on some nineties and two thousands hip hop this morning and that was very fun. I'll tell you that, that was, uh, that was the motivator for me this morning. Get some, get some Angie Thug coming out. All right, so that's what I've got for you guys today. So the big thing that I want you to take away is, the thing that you guys all put in here is, yes, strength training is important, and it's not just about lifting weights and it's not just about, you know, um. Adding more into your program. Strength training is the critical key component to help build resilience, energy, and longevity. And fueling your body is how you actually earn the results of that harder training of, of lifting weights. Okay. So go ahead and put your questions in the chat. Um, I'm happy to answer anything that you guys have. Uh, is two days a week, both days, upper and lower body strength training, both days at 40 minutes beneficial. Lisa, that is a super general question. I will say, uh, that lifting weights and doing full body exercises is a beneficial thing, but it depends on how it's programmed. It depends on programming. It's probably better than nothing. But again, are you, because here's the thing that I, I don't think that a lot of runners think about too, is having your strength training and your running, working together, right? And this is why like just finding any video on YouTube or you know, some random app may or may not be a good thing because it has to work with your runs. Running at 4:30 AM So Tina, the biggest thing that I can tell you is that it takes some experimentation. Um, you have to try different things to see what's gonna be good for you. So like some options would be like, you know, peanut butter toast. Um, there are lots of different things that you can try if it's hard for you to get food in at that time. You could always start, like, if you have a sensitive GI system, you can always start with liquid calories as well. That's one of those things that's different for everybody. All right, so building over, losing strong, over skinny. This needs to be our focus moving forward as runners because I want you to be able to run for as long as you wanna be able to run. And I want you to hit all your goals and challenge yourself and hit your prs, and you're not gonna be able to do that unless you have strong muscles. All right, so whether you like strength training like me or you don't like strength training, it's gonna be one of those things that you have to start doing. And the cool thing is, is that you might start to like it, right? Cindy, I know you're, you're a convert, right? Some of you, some of the people on my team, like on our team here, they did not like it at first, and then they started to feel the benefits of it. Right. When you start to see and feel the benefits, then all of a sudden you're like, oh, okay. And I'll tell you for myself, when I was just running, I was like, I was thinner. Like it, it did help me lose some weight when I was younger, but I, when I looked in the mirror, it was still not the body that I was hoping for, even though the number on the scale was. More of what I thought I wanted. Right? But when I started to lift weights and actually build the muscle, then all of a sudden the body that I was seeing in the mirror was more of what I was hoping for. Okay. Let me see. Strength training has made my running better and easier. Yeah. Do you strength train on the days you run? It depends. You can, um, it depends on how many days a week you're training, um, and what you're doing. But yes, that is definitely an option if you're someone like, I know there's people on our team that, um, work 12 hour shifts or 48 hour shifts or things like that, and they can't train every single day, and we don't recommend training every day anyway. We always recommend having a rest day in there. Um, but there are times that you do have to double up in order to get everything in. So it's about doing that strategically and in the way that's going to give you the best results for you. Yeah. See, that's a, that's the thing too, Anne, right? Like, even if you don't love it, it's, it can be very satisfying to like, see those weights going up. Right? It can be a very gratifying thing too, which is cool. All right, you guys, thank you for being here. This has been fun. Um, tomorrow is day four. I can't believe we're like already. More than halfway through the week. This has been super fun. Um, drop into the Facebook group and, you know, put up your, your biggest takeaway from the exercises, um, and the activities today. And I will see you tomorrow at the same time. All right. Bye y'all. Bye.