63- My Problem with the Fitness Industry

Today, Kat gets honest about her problem with the fitness industry and why so many of the messages aimed at women are built on fear, confusion, and half-truths.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
 ✅ Why your body isn’t a project to fix
 ✅ How social media turns normal life seasons: pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, into profit centers
 ✅ The truth about diastasis recti and why one-size-fits-all “fixes” fall short
 ✅ The facts (not hype) about weighted vest walking
 ✅ How to tell the difference between an influencer and an experienced coach
 ✅ Why you don’t need to buy into gimmicks to feel strong and capable
 ✅ What Kat does differently in her coaching approach and how she helps women make sense of the noise

If you’re tired of feeling like you’re always behind, always broken, or always needing the next big thing, this is your reminder that your body already has wisdom, and you deserve evidence-based support, not scare tactics.

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Transcript

Kat: 0:00

Today I am pulling back the curtain on what's really being sold to women from postpartum to fixes, to midlife fear mongering and how to separate the helpful from the height. But let's start with this. You're not broken, you're not behind, but the fitness industry makes a lot of money convincing you otherwise. We're gonna talk about various things and. Why most of what you see online is just noise. Let's get honest and grounded in what actually works. Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by Kat Fit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Welcome back. I'm Kat, your host, and I am in the thick of all things Summer. I don't know where you're at in your day or when you're listening to this. You could be listening to it in the winter, but for right now, it is summer and my kids are home. For the most part. They are doing their respective sports and keeping up with their instruments But this week has been a doozy of a week. Let me tell you. It has been a week that I feel the universe has been throwing everything at me, but. I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back right now, and I hold this space for you to celebrate a win of anything, no matter if you feel it's small, celebrate it. I have been able to stay focused. I've been able to show up for myself for my workouts. Yes, there's been a lot of flexibility in adapting the workouts, but no matter what. Catastrophe has come my way from basement flooding to my husband being stranded due to canceled flights and everything else in between. I have been able to manage and get everybody to where they need to be and fulfill all of clients' needs. But today I really wanna dive into a real conversation about what's happening in the wellness world. Because honestly, it is so loud out there, so loud, and it's so easy to forget already just how much wisdom you have in your own body. The wellness space is wild, and I'm gonna take a guess that you've probably seen endless posts telling you you're broken. You need the powders, the program, the reset challenge to feel, okay, I've watched these trends over the years. When I was first starting out in the personal training world, the fitness world, I was, starting my second pregnancy and I. It was kind of mind boggling and I started out really focusing on that postpartum, prenatal area. Not because of the trend, but because I saw there was a vast void. But then what I saw as I progressed through my pregnancy, and after that the entire fitness trend was filled about diasis recti. It was like your body was doomed to fail because you had a baby, and pregnancy ruined it. Now I see it shifted again, and the same fear is pointed at midlife women. You're told you need thousands of dollars in supplements and elimination diets and biohacks from influencers with no business prescribing any of it. And look, I'm not here to say these things never have a place because maybe they do. A lot of this stuff, it's out of my own expertise, my own certifications, but the pressure to believe that you must do all of it to be respected or healthy, that's the part that needs to stop. So let's zoom out for a second. I've been in the industry for 12 years. Before that, I coached college athletics, track and field to be more specific. Plus, I also was a strength and conditioning coach for all teams at the college level. When I made this switch to serving the general population, I struggled big time and here's why. What I saw was. There's a big machine pushing workouts that punish people in the name of calories burnt. The obsession was all about grinding yourself into the floor every day. Nuance, no context, no respect for the complexity of the human body, and for especially women then that prenatal postpartum fitness. Just became this massive trend. Everyone suddenly branded themselves as an expert because there was money to be made, I had been studying for my pre and postnatal certifications going through understanding like women deserve better. They didn't need to be told, well, you had a baby. Your body's broken, so just deal with it. It was, no, there's. Better way to train a woman during this season of her life. And I wanna be very clear, you are not fragile or broken when you go through this season. Yes, there are specific considerations to take into account because your body went through monumental shifts. Let's briefly talk about the core but if you think about a textbook pregnancy, roughly 40 weeks, your body has to make space for a growing baby. Organs move, muscles stretch, and some muscles compress. The abdomen just doesn't bounce back because an influencer said so one of the biggest issues that I saw during that time, and it's still going on with Diasis Recti is just the focus on the gap when it is a little bit deeper. Diasis recti presents. Differently in a lot of different cases, like there's the gap, you can have a two finger gap, a three finger gap, a four finger gap. But there's also a tissue that holds the two, rectus abdominis, which are your six pack muscles together called the linea alba in the tension or a lack thereof. Tension in that can also be the cause of challenges in the core. Does not mean you will never have a strong core again, but what I see is social media starts hawking belly binders and cookie cutter programs with the promise of closing that gap. But here's the truth, it's diasis recti is just not permanent in most cases. It's not just about how wide the gap is. It's about a lot of the depth and the pressure in the core canister from the diaphragm down to the pelvic floor. And each woman's healing looks different. The timeline looks different. Each person is different. So what works for one woman may not work for another. I've seen many women come in who have, I'm gonna say a traditional diasis recite, whether it's a gap and, lack of tension in the linear elbow. What client A needs is different than client B. Each body's gonna respond differently, does not mean that certain exercises are off limits. You might see on social media, don't do crunches. That's going to cause an increase in your gap. Don't do X, Y, Z exercise. Don't run. Yes, run It is mind boggling. it's all about marketing. If you don't fix it, they'll tell you something bad will happen because it's about fear mongering. Now it's shifted from scaring new moms to scarring midlife women who are navigating perimenopause and menopause. Every time I open Instagram, I literally get whiplash from, don't do this. You'll ruin your hormones or if you don't eat this one weird food, your metabolism is toast. And if you're not wearing a weighted vest while walking, do not even bother taking another step. It is exhausting, and I'm gonna say the truest, most powerful two words you'll ever hear today. Bodies change. Those words are neutral. It's not good. It's not bad. It's just true. And I wanna share with you what I believe. Fitness is not linear. Health is not a reset challenge. Nutrition is not about punishment and breaks with working out and eating a whole food diet. They happen and they're not failures. It's all about. Being a human with a full life, here are a few things I want to remind you of when you're feeling pulled into this noise. One small action is better than none. A 10 minute walk still counts. A 10 minute workout still counts. You do not need to overhaul everything. Start with one strength workout a week and build from there. It doesn't have to be a strength workout. Start what is the most accessible and build it by one. You do not have to earn your rest. Recovery is where adaptation happens from all your movement and all your workout. We want rest there. These things that I just said is what I do. I write strength, cardio, mobility plans that meet you exactly where you are, whether you're in prenatal, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, or just trying to feel at home and better in your body. I don't believe en forcing you into a template or telling you you have to be perfect to belong because there's no one size that fits all. As a matter of fact, one of the best things that, my clients say this over and over again is. My program is not a one size fit. All I know, I call it program. I switch in with program coaching, et cetera. But when I meet a client, it's who are you specifically? Because who you are, there may be some, correlations between you and client A, client C But ultimately you have unique needs. Your life is unique and that is. The beautiful part of being a human. And I'm not here to scream that you need me. I'm not in the business of shaming you to sign up, and I'm not in the business to convince you. You need to sign up at all. This is not what this podcast is about, but if you're ever wondering how to start when everything feels overwhelming, try this. Pick one pillar to focus on this month. Maybe that is boosting your movement, so if it's easier for you. Walk for 10 minutes after dinner or find the most easiest and accessible part of your day to fit that in. Maybe it's adding strength, maybe it's adding one more vegetable or a fruit to your meal. Just pick one. Movement, cardio or nutrition. One pillar to focus on this month, There's no time limit, there's no effort. Too small. There's no time limit on, it all counts. And then notice how you talk to yourself. If you catch yourself saying, I should be doing more, pause yourself and ask, is that actually true? Finally, let your season dictate your priorities for some seasons. Maintenance with your wellness plan is what it is, and some seasons it's growth, it's pushing more, and both are valid and needed a while back was probably like a month or two ago, someone called me an influencer. Ooh. It cut me to the core and I pushed back. Yes, I sell a service. Yes, I share my perspective online, but here's the difference. Influencers sell an image. Coaches build a foundation. My background isn't in fitness trends. It's in coaching at a collegiate level. That shaped everything on how I see my work. Each person I coach is an athlete in life, not someone who needs fixing, someone who wants to win in their own way to feel strong, resilient, and capable in every season. The season they're in and the season they're about to enter. And social media makes it so easy to assume Everyone with a good camera and a big following knows exactly what they're doing. But a lot of what you see is marketing. It's edited, it's designed to make you feel you're missing something. So you'll buy whatever they're selling. This does not mean every influencer is bad or unqualified, but you have to ask better questions before you hand over your trust, your money, or your health. And here's a couple ways you can tell the difference. Check their credentials. Real coaches share certifications, education and experience without getting defensive. Real coaches will share multiple views, Look beyond before and after photos and glowing testimonials. These can be cherry picked or show only the best case scenarios. A professional can clearly explain how and why their approach works, not just that it worked for one or two people. Watch how they respond to questions. Professionals will not panic if you ask. Can you point me to the research on this, or how do you adapt plans for different needs? Pay attention to their language. Are they constantly telling you you're broken? That you must buy their program to be worthy or speaking in absolutisms. Or they are selling a program that is tied to their affiliate marketing. And finally look for a track record for working with real humans, not just modeling workouts for social media, but coaching clients over months and years showing they know how to work with real humans and help them troubleshoot. And the bottom line is you deserve to work with someone who respects your autonomy and can back up their claims. Now, this is. A, gimmick or whatever you wanna call it, but I'm gonna present both sides on this. What I have been seeing a massive uptick right now all over the socials is weighted vest walking and context matters here. The thing that you'll see a lot of influencers touting is a small study. The thing is, with this small study, yes, it showed a. Small percentage of positive impact on strength and increase of bone density. Fantastic things. We want this as humans. We want to maintain our bone density and we want to maintain our muscle percentage for as long as possible. These things are great things. I will not deny it now. However, the study had. A weak design and there was no control groups, and there have been multiple studies that have looked at weighted vest walking. There have also been studies that have shown very little improvement of strength gains and bone density. So studies also have shown it doesn't apply automatically to everyone. So here's my honest take on weight vest. They have their place, okay? If you love walking and you wanna add load, fantastic. They will make you work a bit harder during a walk. But please, let's not pretend that's the only way to get stronger. Walking in any form is incredible. As a big runner, I applaud walking and embrace my walks. It can improve cardiovascular health, support, longevity, and it also helps maintain stress and mood. You can make walking more challenging without a vest. So if you're on the fence of like, oh, I need to get this vest, our friends telling you, maybe an influencer, because it's just everywhere. Here's ways you can. Make your walks more challenging without a vest. Increase your pace while walking. Vary your pace while walking. So walk very, what I say. Walk with a purpose, very intense, quick walking, and then slow it. That's gonna help increase your heart rate and bring it down. Walk hills. So walking up and down, a hilly trail or paved uh, path. Get on trails, change it up. Again, like I said, use intervals for faster and slower paces. And the other one is leave your phone in your pocket and just be present. That one's gonna have a really good mental health clearing and stress mitigation effect. So in the end, do you need a weighted vest to walk? Absolutely not. But I'll say if you wanna try one, that is totally fine too. But the things I want you to take away with is your body's gonna adapt. To the weighted vest and you're gonna stop gaining the benefits. It's a natural process, and if this is your only strength, stimulus is the weighted vest. Your body will plateau. And to maintain or build strength and bone density, you must continually increase the load or the challenge just with any other progressive overload principle. Again, I can't say this enough, I'm not for or against weighted vest. What I'm against is this fear-based messaging that if you aren't wearing one, your walking is worthless or that you're failing. And if I'm being honest, I'd rather see people combine walking with a progressive strength training program that includes resistance training, jumping and plyo metrics, because this is gonna have a higher impact on stronger bones. Hormone regulation and blood sugar management than a weighted vest ever could. If it's your only form of resistance training. Now, if you're like, well, I have one and I wanna maximize this, well, here are some things that can help walking on a 10% incline. So if you are walking inside, a good controlled place to do this is a treadmill at a 10% incline, however. Do not hold onto the handrails because when you hold onto the handrails or the, the hand grips in front of you on the treadmill, because once you start holding on, you take the load off and you clear out the incline. So walk at a pace and if 10% is too aggressive, build up to it. Again, there's nothing magical about 10, 10%, but it's going to help increase that challenge. But if you are walking at a 10% and a speed and you're holding onto the treadmill, it's going to cancel out using a higher weighted vest. So ideally, it's about 20% of your body weight is going to help increase that caloric burn. So for example, if you are roughly 140 pounds, that's gonna be about a 30 pound weight vest. That's a lot of weight on you. And I'm gonna say for full transparency, I would never walk with a 30 pound weight vest on now. Okay. I've gone backpacking. My backpack has been about 30 pounds, but that's a little bit more ergonomically fitted to my body. It's distributed throughout the whole back. It's, a little bit different I have a weight vest. So in full transparency here, again, I don't want you to think I'm a hypocrite because I have a weight vest and I'm saying it doesn't really matter if you have one or not. But I don't use it for walking, not because I'm against it, and we're gonna get more into that in a moment. But it's for strength training. I use it when I'm doing strength training workouts where the focus is 20 to 30% of my body weight, and it's primarily those lifting sessions are after my second long run of the week. If you're new here, I train for ultra marathons where I do, two long runs a week. And what I found was when I would hold a kettlebell or a dumbbell or a barbell, my form would be off because my body was tired from some weeks putting on. A total of on those two days, a total of 20 to 30 miles, or even more. So what I found was using a weight vest allowed me to add more resistance to my body, but maintain better form when I'm doing lunges, step ups, or whatever the exercises are for that strength training workout. There are some risks involved with weight vests and they're not good for every person, and here are a few things that you may find yourself in if you're prone to lower back pain just in everyday life. It can increase your lower back pain if someone has osteoporosis or history of vertebrae, fractures, or injuries. It can irritate or cause further injury.'cause again, you're putting an external load on the body which is going to compress the spine more. So also if you have core or pelvic floor dysfunction. To be, go back to my earlier point. If you are in that newly postpartum area and you are someone who may be suspected of having diasis recti or you have pelvic floor challenges I would not recommend using a weighted vest. These three areas can be just highlighted areas where it can cause harm to your body. And influences out there are not talking about this. They're just saying walk with one because they are selling a product. I have clients that wear a weighted vest. We've talked over, is this the right choice. Clients come to me all the time asking about. Things they see on social media and we have a clear conversation and I help point them to the research clients who wanna wear a weighted vest, and it's a right decision for them. I work with building a strength plan that is gonna set them up for success. I'm in conversation with them. How are they feeling? Is there any lower back pain cropping up? Do they have core, or pelvic floor issues that might be popping up? We talk about these things because I wanna make sure that their plan is matching where they're at and that the loads of stress are,, working together. I wanna be fully transparent. I am not here to convince you that you need personal training to be valid or successful. I've alluded to this a little bit more, but I wanna drive this point home is I help clients figure out where their body is right now, where they wanna go, and what activities actually get them excited and fit into their life. Because a successful fitness plan is one you actually wanna do that you don't have to. Grit your teeth and you know, white knuckle your way through, it's one that you're gonna actually be excited about and want to continue over time. And the plans are right for them, are unique to them, and it's progressive strength training, mobility and movement that respects the season that they're in. As I said, if a client wants to walk with a way to vest, awesome. We're gonna do it thoughtfully, and I'm gonna make sure that her strength plan also addresses the postural integrity, the core strength, the long-term progression, so she feels stronger and more capable on her walks. I'm solely here to support and not sell you an image or tell you that you're broken or pretend. There's only one right way to train. So if you're listening and feeling tired of the pressure to prove yourself, I see you. You don't have to be perfect to be worthy. And here are three takeaways I want you to carry into your week. Your body is not a project to fix. It's a vessel to care for and it deserves respect. Small actions build big change. Consistency matters more than perfection. This one, the last one is. Something I continuously believe in and let my clients know. You already have the authority on your body and you get to choose what fits your life and what doesn't. This is what I'm here for, to help you return to health without gimmicks, to remind you that you are the expert on your body to coach you through the seasons of challenge and seasons of growth. And if you ever want support that feels grounded and real, I'm here. If you just needed to hear this today. Know, that's enough too. You're always welcome here and thank you for being here. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit Strength, or share this episode. With a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.