Everyday Strength: The Power of Functional Fitness

In this episode of Rebel Health Collective, we sit down with Jamie Byron, founder of Good Life Training, to discuss how functional fitness can transform your daily life. Whether you're a busy professional, a parent, or someone simply looking to improve your overall wellness, Jamie shares accessible strategies that can help you integrate movement and strength training into your routine—without spending hours in the gym.

We dive into the importance of daily movement, simple at-home exercises, and how to balance your fitness routine with proper nutrition for a sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Jamie’s philosophy focuses on quality of life, ensuring that fitness isn't just about aesthetics but about living stronger and healthier for the long run.

Tune in to learn:

• Why functional fitness is more effective than traditional workout routines
• How to get started with bodyweight exercises that require no equipment
• Practical tips for staying active and building strength, even if you’re short on time
• The benefits of daily movement on both physical and mental wellness
• How to balance healthy eating with enjoying life’s indulgences

Whether you're new to fitness or a seasoned pro, this episode provides actionable advice to help you feel better, move easier, and live a fuller life.

Resources & Links:

• Follow Jamie Byron on Instagram: @jamie_goodlife
• Visit Good Life Training: goodlifetrain.com

Support the Show: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review! Your feedback helps us reach more people and continue our mission of advocating for patient empowerment, education, and wellness transformation.

Share Your Story & Be a Guest On the Podcast: Please click HERE to schedule a time to introduce yourself and tell us a little about your story or expertise.

**Disclaimer: Please remember that the topics and information discussed in this podcast are for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider or medical professional before making any changes to your health regimen or implementing any new treatments. Your health journey is unique, and it’s important to work with your trusted healthcare team to determine what’s best for you.**

Transcript

Josh Bostick (00:01.494)
 I've got Jamie Byron here, who is a personal trainer, and he's gonna talk to us a lot about functional fitness, things that we can do today that can start having a big impact in our life. I worked with Jamie, what was it, two, almost three years ago now.

Jamie Byron (00:21.134)
It was 2021, yeah.

Josh Bostick (00:23.744)
So, and you know, I was thinking about it today and that's actually the heat of when a lot of my diabetes and stuff was coming on. So I know, kind of...

Jamie Byron (00:30.904)
Yeah, I remember one of our last conversations was about like things are starting to change. I'm going have to get from training for a little bit.

Josh Bostick (00:37.848)
Right. Things aren't right. Yeah. And so that was like week, like 10 or 12, somewhere that we were like right at the very end of the program. So, well, cool. I'll turn it over to you if you want to tell a little bit about yourself and your company and kind of what your mission is.

Jamie Byron (00:43.618)
Yep. Yep.

Jamie Byron (00:53.442)
All right. Yeah. My name's Jamie. I am the owner and founder of good life training. we started off just with me doing most of the operations and now we are a family business. I've joined forces with my little sister who is a lot smarter, more organized than I am. So we have a solid system in place now where we can help people with workouts through our training app, in -person training and virtual training. And

We have systems on the nutritional side of things where we help people kind of navigate how regular people, like not competitive athletes, regular people should be eating and living to have a nice balance of like achieving their goals, but also like enjoying your day -to -day life on the food side of things as well. It's really important to us. That's why I always say we're called good life training, not get as skinny as you can training. We're about quality of life first.

Josh Bostick (01:47.824)
Yeah, can definitely appreciate that and I mean I guess with that we can kind of just jump into the basics and you know the importance of Daily movement. I know when I was doing the plan with you It was a lot different than a lot of the plans that you'll find on the internet where you know, you're doing curls and Curls and more curls for all the girls all the time. So you definitely had like an aspect of you know functional movement where

Jamie Byron (02:10.173)
Yeah, definitely.

Josh Bostick (02:15.751)
after the first week or two when the soreness went away and I could actually walk up and down stairs again, getting out of bed, getting in and out of cars, going up ladders, that kind of stuff was way easier than it was before.

Jamie Byron (02:27.499)
Absolutely, yeah, that's kind of why we think of it. And I think this comes from the mentors that I had in my training shadowing and the first few jobs that I had. They work with a lot of people who just want the quality of life aspect of training. Maybe they're 55 and just want to feel better when they take a knee to pull something out of their cabinet in the kitchen. Kind of like to do movements like that where it's more of like a lunge.

into a curl, into a squat. So kind of moving more in the movement patterns that you'd use every day makes more sense to us than putting someone's grandmother on the shoulder press machine to make her delts bigger. I think the daily movement stuff, you are moving throughout your day, hopefully, getting some walking in, doing stuff just like getting up off the couch, those kinds of movement patterns, the activities of daily life. We wanna keep those movement patterns strong, but then also on the mental wellness side.

Josh Bostick (03:01.707)
Right, I mean, it's important, but still.

Jamie Byron (03:19.412)
think there's definitely something to staying more active physically so you're not kind of sitting around in your thoughts. And the stress management side of things too, when you put yourself in an uncomfortable situation like exercise on purpose, it kind of helps you manage when life's stressful situations pop up, makes those a little bit less daunting. I think that's why incorporating some kind of movement intentionally into your days is huge.

Josh Bostick (03:45.112)
Yeah, I can totally resonate with that. I for me, I work at home. And so if I'm not getting outside and walking or going to the gym or going to shoot hoops or something, I'm waking up, taking our kid to daycare, coming home, spending 10 hours at my desk, cooking dinner, going to bed. It's just, yeah.

Jamie Byron (03:58.206)
Yep.

Jamie Byron (04:02.867)
Yeah, very, very easy to do. And a lot of people, a lot of people worked manual labor for thousands of years so that we could sit at our houses comfortably. But now we need to move our bodies like they used to so that we can just stay in kind of maintenance of adult humans. Strength should be.

Josh Bostick (04:19.948)
Yeah, definitely. you know, as I'm getting older and having friends that are having kids and stuff like that, it's, can see the grandparents,  thankfully my parents and my wife's parents are active and,  go fishing, go hunting, are out on the boat, stuff like that. So they're moving around and they can pick our son up, carry him around, no problem. So it's definitely thankful for that.

Jamie Byron (04:34.216)
Yep, huge.

Jamie Byron (04:39.398)
Yeah, that's huge. it sounds like they've found things that they enjoy to keep moving with. That's huge. You don't want to force yourself to be doing something that's miserable because that's likely not going to stick. You want to find something like getting out there to fish might be meaning a mile walk to get to the spot. Then you're kind of standing, stepping around the whole time. You're just active in ways that you enjoy. That's huge for quality of life, especially for our parents that are getting into their late 50s, 60s. Some people I know have parents in the 70s.

Josh Bostick (04:44.812)
Yeah.

Josh Bostick (05:01.601)
For sure.

Josh Bostick (05:08.856)
Yeah, definitely. And you know, it doesn't have to be going to the gym and walking on the treadmill for 25 minutes. There's you going out in garden. I mean, just walking a dog, a pet, a grandkid, things like that.

Jamie Byron (05:13.35)
Nope.

Jamie Byron (05:17.447)
Absolutely. Yeah. Same as you. I work from home and I, if I don't leave the house to go take the dog to the park, then most likely I'm taking 3000 less steps in a day and might never see the sun. Yeah. Have to be intentional about it.

Josh Bostick (05:30.165)
Exactly, yeah, yeah, I can for sure. Yeah, and so I guess what are some just simple functional exercises that you know, you could get off the couch right now and do and you don't need gym membership, a bunch of equipment, anything like that.

Jamie Byron (05:42.832)
Definitely.

Jamie Byron (05:46.49)
Yeah, absolutely. think in people's heads, they want to think about the pillars of human movement. And these are fairly simple. Squatting, bending at the hips is going to be stuff like picking up something off the front porch. So you need to be able to bend at the hips and pick things up. This is something that can be done with body weight for sure. Doing movements like glute bridges on the couch gets you a nice bend at the waist and hip extension. Bend at the waist, hip extension. you're

Up against the couch, do some hip thrusts, stuff like that. Squatting, say for things like getting up and down off the couch or sitting on the toilet. Squatting can be done pretty much anywhere. And then for the upper body, pushing and pulling patterns is what the upper limbs are meant for. So if you're strong enough to do a pushup on your knees on the floor, great. If you're strong enough to do pushups on a table, the higher the elevated surface is gonna be a little bit easier. Doing pushups on anything is gonna get a little bit of upper body strength going and...

I guess you could brainstorm up things that you do most often, climb up and down stairs. I know my grandmother had literally every inch of her kitchen was full of things that she would actually use. So she'd be standing up on stuff, reaching up to the top cabinet. you, there's a lot you can do mobility wise, stretching at home where you can keep that range of motion strong without necessarily having to ever lift weights or jump on the treadmill or yeah, plenty of stuff like yoga, Pilates, bar can be done at home.

Yeah, there's a lot of home friendly options. As you mix in more equipment, that's even better.

Josh Bostick (07:21.283)
For sure, and I've seen stuff on Instagram where it's older ladies with a pound of sugar and they're just sitting there doing curls like that. I mean, you can literally...

Jamie Byron (07:26.828)
Yeah, absolutely. Have you ever taken a spin class and they give you like two pound dumbbells? Every time I do it, I'm like, this is going to feel like nothing. Then you get five minutes into nonstop arm movements. You're like, well, how does this two pounds feel so heavy?

Josh Bostick (07:40.665)
Yeah, there's aqua classes at my gym and I'm seriously thinking there's no way I could do that. I could not keep up with some of those 65 plus people out there.

Jamie Byron (07:45.985)
Yep, they get aggressive. Yeah, you have people in their home workouts use pillows a lot as like in place of where like a medicine ball might go. towels for sure. If you just take a towel and kind of whip it around like you're trying to dry it out. Great shoulder workout for older people. Try to think of a lot of things you need some wall slides. There's a lot of options for at home workouts with stuff you got laying around already.

Josh Bostick (08:13.209)
Yeah, definitely. mean, and there's so much on just the internet, too. You you can go on YouTube and find a 15 minute yoga class. And what's what's your thoughts on?

Jamie Byron (08:19.423)
Absolutely, yeah, the resources are there.

Josh Bostick (08:24.427)
Is it just important to be moving or, you know, mean, obviously any movement is better than no movement, but do you need to be focusing on, you know, lifting that one pound of sugar or if you have mobility issues is doing yoga enough, you know, I mean, do you need to be focusing on one, you know, muscle strength or is it just getting up and moving more than anything?

Jamie Byron (08:30.219)
Absolutely.

Jamie Byron (08:49.45)
I think for most people, getting up and moving is a big step in the right direction. And then everything else is kind of fine tuning exactly what you want. Our bodies have this really good ability to adapt to whatever we do. for example, like how people know like construction workers and people that work on farms are going to be strong and have strong hands and calluses. Our bodies adapt to their needs. Same thing for if you're a person whose body is

Demanded to sit at the desk all day our shoulders kind of get that slouch So it's easier for us to be at our desk our bodies adapt to whatever the demands are Same thing for someone that's sitting down You're get tight in certain spots to make it more comfortable for you to sit down. So movement in general is great as far as maintaining muscle mass, I think there are ways To do bodyweight things that you're be able to keep your muscle mass Mobility is gonna be very specific to the person. I think yoga is great because you're gonna get well rounded

movement for most of your big important joints core, especially Holding your own body weight up. So yeah, I would say yes to your question yoga would probably be enough for people who have Need to move slowly just want some added stability not really looking to lift weights and build a Look or size or really increase a ton of strength in the muscles I think for the just the goal of strength any kind of resistance is good

gravity resistance bands. Yeah, those are the main two that we would use gravity as in like weights, any kind of weights, pound of sugar works. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a tough, interesting question.

Josh Bostick (10:25.698)
Okay.

Josh Bostick (10:31.405)
Yeah, mean, you know, I've got my mom's got a bad leg, so she can't go out and, you know, do a 5k or anything like that. So she's always trying to find ways to be moving and staying active. But at same time, she'll want to do something for a day and then, you know, be down for two weeks. Kind of defeats the purpose there.

Jamie Byron (10:33.257)
Depends on the person.

Jamie Byron (10:39.295)
Gotcha.

Jamie Byron (10:48.497)
Yeah, yep. Yeah, that's definitely a tough one trying to work around injury. I would try to think in the box of like, what are some things that her body is comfortable with and try to build from there. With a leg that's somewhat limited, that's gonna knock a lot of things out. I've given it a lot of thought. Me and my sister have tossed the idea around of going to assisted living places. They do chair -based workouts.

Josh Bostick (11:08.268)
Right, for sure.

Jamie Byron (11:17.695)
or you're just in the chair, don't even have to get up ever. Some weights, some resistance bands, some body weight movements, that's doing a lot for a lot of people. Yeah, definitely do what you can. It stinks. Even when I have a 20 something year old that's like, sprained my ankle. I'm like, sounds like you got two arms at work. I'll adjust the program, let's keep pushing. Yeah, we'll keep it pushing, we'll do what we can.

Josh Bostick (11:26.39)
Yeah, just do what you can.

Josh Bostick (11:38.188)
Right, well we'll kill the legs later on.

Josh Bostick (11:43.833)
Cool, and I mean, I know one thing that...

we've worked on when I was working with you was nutrition. And I really appreciated the, we're not just going to cut everything out and eat, you know, lettuce and air for the next 12 weeks. It was a good balance of, know, try to eat clean, but don't knock out with your friends and, you know, be social on the weekends or go out to that happy hour or something like that. so what's, what's your take on, you know, that good balance of foods that, you know, if you go out, try to

Jamie Byron (11:58.066)
Yep.

Jamie Byron (12:06.791)
Yeah, definitely.

Josh Bostick (12:16.181)
kind of maybe stay towards these rather than getting the huge pile of nachos or something like that.

Jamie Byron (12:22.013)
Absolutely. think everyone's goal is generally to not feel too crappy afterwards and not do too much of a long -term dent calorie -wise to where they're putting on extra pounds that they don't want. I think for being out in restaurant party tailgate environments, this seems kind of like common sense, but I definitely know that it's not. I veer from it a lot. You have to kind of pick and choose where you're going to plug these things in. Going for

more whole foods, getting a side of broccoli, carrots, even potatoes would be better than getting, like you said, the side of chips that's gonna have a little bit of more calories from cooking oils and stuff like that, or getting, yeah, very low calorie side options to whatever you're getting. If you're gonna go after the 200 calorie, 300 calorie tiny piece of cheesecake at the end.

then we probably don't need the 200, 300 calorie extra cheese and gravy potatoes on the side. Not to say that those things are bad, but everything fits into a spot in your life. And then once you have extra, that's when your body starts to put on a little extra. And I think there's a lot to be said about knowing your hunger and fullness cues. I do it myself, I'm full, we all do it. And then the dessert menu comes out, you're like, I could probably eat a little more.

Josh Bostick (13:49.997)
Yeah, definitely.

Jamie Byron (13:50.703)
So knowing when you're full is a good sign from nature, from your body. Hey, we've had enough food for now. Might not want to eat anymore. Maybe make the human decision to be like, yeah, I don't care. I'm going to do it anyways. But doing stuff like that, like knowing your body, knowing your triggers too. Definitely some things that you get into a social setting and kind of go blank and just snack. So I think just general awareness helps a lot of people for sure. And making the simple choices.

Josh Bostick (14:16.996)
Yeah, I mean one thing, yeah, definitely. mean, all the sides are right there and your eyes definitely go to the...

the potatoes and gravy or mac and cheese and that kind of stuff. But there's always broccoli and Brussels sprouts and that kind of stuff there. And my wife and I, like when we go out and we do, you know, splurge for that cheesecake or something, instead of getting again two, we get one and we just split it. So by default, she's going to take half of it and exactly half of it. I'm, you know, I'm not going to get the full thing. So, you know, there's ways like that that you can cut some calories out too.

Jamie Byron (14:27.289)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (14:43.833)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (14:48.366)
Yeah, I think I've just had this conversation with the client. She's been, over the course of about two years, not, we haven't been trying to lose any weight. She's a competitive athlete. She's eating for performance. And we really don't check in with weight. And over the course of two years, she's gained eight pounds. And she was like, I'm really frustrated about this weight gain. And I'm like, over the course of two years, eight pounds, that's like less than half a pound a month for two years.

that is the result of the extra 100 calories here and there on top of training. Some of it's gonna be muscle too. But if your average daily calorie intake is 100 calorie surplus over the course of a month, that's gonna put you almost at a pound of weight gained. If you're lifting weights, some of that could be muscle. If you're not, of that, most of that's gonna be fat. So over the course of a year, 12 pounds doesn't seem like a lot. might, people might be like, I don't eat that much. I really don't eat out that often or binge that often.

All it takes is a little calorie surplus, compound it over time. That's how we add up to weight on our bodies that we don't want. Even though sucks, it's not gonna be the most fun thing to order the broccoli and the Brussels sprouts. Definitely you have to grow a new appreciation for that and that comes with practice. It makes you love the cheesecake even more. You're like, all right, I waited for this. This is great.

Josh Bostick (15:56.247)
Yeah, get that look.

Josh Bostick (16:09.057)
Right, yeah, definitely makes it a bigger treat when you're not having it every single night.

Jamie Byron (16:12.952)
There's going to be one out of 10 meals where you're like, I'm going for all the sides and all the dessert. And you got to just like not care the next day. Go back to your normal routine.

Josh Bostick (16:22.51)
Right, I mean, you go to the Cheesecake Factory and don't get cheesecake. Doesn't work like that. So, you know going in there.

Jamie Byron (16:25.996)
Yeah, that's a big one for people too when they get into their nutritional routines. If you get one day that's not great, it can't linger into trying to make up for it the next day. And the day after that you're super hungry again and then it gets into this bouncing back and forth. Just wanna get back on the tracks the next day. It goes a long way.

Josh Bostick (16:43.863)
Yeah, definitely. know, if you break it on if you break it on Wednesday, don't wait till next Monday to Start back on Thursday.

Jamie Byron (16:49.897)
Yeah, yeah, it happens a lot. Sounds so simple, but happens all the time.

Josh Bostick (16:54.286)
Like you said, there's a couple hundred extra calories from Thursday to Sunday add up quick and got to work them back off.

Jamie Byron (16:58.624)
Yep.

It does add up quick. I've tracked most of my nutrition and it does add up quick.

Josh Bostick (17:07.253)
I bet a lot quicker than a lot of us who don't track it realize. So I know with like the diabetes, anything carb related, I'm pretty good about, know, my fitness pal just getting like a rough estimate. And there's been times where I've put it in and open something like there's no way like I thought this was a fourth of what this is. And I'm just like, it's not worth it.

Jamie Byron (17:16.725)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (17:23.934)
Yeah, a lot of the packaging gets us the branding that says like healthy or whatever word they want to use on it. And then you like look at the macros on the back like, whoa, that's like a whole meal back there. This is like a little bar. Yeah, that's part of why we do have people log their nutrition. A lot of the time, the goal of track your nutrition is just to gain some awareness of it. And then after a while, when someone's like, I think I got this I eat in a pretty

Josh Bostick (17:30.317)
heart healthy and.

Josh Bostick (17:35.811)
Yeah, exactly.

Jamie Byron (17:51.548)
solid routine now and progress is going in the direction that we wanted. Can I not track anymore? Yeah, go for it. That's the goal. You feel comfortable that you have a life routine that you don't have to think about too much now. This is just your normal.

Josh Bostick (18:01.579)
Right. And I mean, that's where you want to get. You don't want to be pulling your phone out every time you're putting something in your mouth. And, know, like I can look.

Jamie Byron (18:04.34)
Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. think I view a of people's training that way too. Like I can tell someone's like, all right, they're grasping this pretty well. Probably in three months, six months, they're probably not going to need me to do this anymore. And we'll just, if they want to for the accountability, stick around. Great. I think you're kind of grasping the concepts of how training should look. So good luck. I'm proud of you.

Josh Bostick (18:28.702)
And that actually goes into the next topic I wanted to go into. was like building a routine and what do I need to be going to the gym seven days a week or you know doing a two -mile walk seven days a week. I mean where's kind of that threshold of benefit versus you're not really gaining that much more.

Jamie Byron (18:33.215)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (18:48.02)
Yeah, there's a term in fitness called the, I don't know if it's the rule or the law of diminishing returns. Like 10 sets of something is great, not gonna get that much benefit from 11, definitely not gonna get that much benefit from 13, like what's the range where it's effective. I think a lot of the research shows you can maintain and even slowly build strength two days a week of strength training. On the mobility side of things,

Zoom does that too, when you throw up a peace sign it throws the balloons up. But I think yeah, two days a week is what is shown to maintain or increase strength. That could even be body weight stuff where if someone's really not comfortable with squatting, you're doing a couple sets of a muscle building range, which that's a little bit deeper science, muscle building hypertrophy is, textbooks tell us from six to 15.

Josh Bostick (19:21.634)
wow.

Jamie Byron (19:45.683)
Outside of that, on the high end is gonna be building muscular endurance. On the low end of that is gonna be for strength, but in that middle range. So let's say someone does three sets of 10 squats, two days a week for a month for the first time in years. Hopefully by the end of that month, the body starts to have some adaptations. So two days a week and then any more than that, great. I would say for most of us, life's stresses, the schedule.

and just energy demands. Three or four is most realistic. Like that's the average that most of our clients live in. And there is definitely an intentional wear and tear on the body when you're exercising so that your body can recover and come back a little bit stronger. So if doing five, six days might be a little bit too much for a lot of people, then it's not worth having those. That's where the line of diminishing return starts to be in. Like if that fifth and sixth workout,

the first week of the month is gonna make your first three workouts less energy next week. Might not be worth doing those ones. So that's a little bit on an individual basis, but I would say most. Two's a good place on the strength training. Three, even better. As far as the walking goes, I think there's also a lot of research for our cardiovascular health that shows eight to 10 ,000 for most people. Steps in a day is ideal for making up for the lack of physical.

labor that we do. think that's why we put the step school in. I would say if someone's not getting steps and they're going for a swim or a bike ride, then that's not going to be as important to do the daily steps. But I think that kind of goes back to the beginning of the day's daily movement. So I think a mile is about 2000 steps. Four miles over the course of a day, about 8000 steps is sounds like a lot. It's about 40 minutes of walking around.

Josh Bostick (21:12.718)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (21:37.264)
People might underestimate how much of that they do too. I know I tracked myself when I was folding laundry last week and I would took like a thousand steps just wandering around the house folding stuff. So people get a lot of steps in. I don't think you need to have an intentional walk every single day. But I think most people would find it enjoyable mentally. Give yourself a moment to go for a walk. And it's going to give you an average of about 2000 extra steps a day. Just walking a mile takes about 20 minutes.

Josh Bostick (21:45.561)
Yeah, I say...

Josh Bostick (22:06.234)
Yeah, I was trying to get my watch to say how far I walked today and it's not giving it to me for some reason.

Jamie Byron (22:11.504)
We have some absolute, we have some nurses, have some people on this, we have a step challenge going on with all the good left training clients. And some of the people are averaging like, averaging like 18 ,000, 20 ,000 steps a day. I'm like, I can't keep up with you guys.

Josh Bostick (22:20.144)
I've seen that, yeah, I've seen it on your story.

Josh Bostick (22:26.725)
Is that like, they gotta be like training for a half marathon or something. That's nuts. Or yeah, I guess like a nurse, someone who's all in... Gosh.

Jamie Byron (22:29.871)
Some of them are runners. Some of them are runners. The one person that's in the lead is just a nurse. She's like, I don't know what, like people are in the group chat, like they've given each other a little trash talk. And she's like, I don't know what to tell you guys. I'm just walking around for like 10 hours every day. Man, stacks up.

Josh Bostick (22:45.726)
Dang, yeah, I was gonna say it. So I went into the office today and so I definitely walked more than normal and I'm at 9 ,500 which is almost right at four miles. So no, was honestly thinking it was gonna be like 4 ,500 steps. That's way more than I expected.

Jamie Byron (22:54.978)
That's a lot. Did you have an intentional walk today? No. Yeah. That's a lot.

Yeah, that's four plus miles. I for, I take about almost exactly 2 ,000 steps in a mile. I know for, I have some clients that are like five three or five four, they take like 2 ,200 steps in a mile. Little baby. Baby steps, yeah.

Josh Bostick (23:15.421)
It's when the little legs come in. You should make them go farther or something just because they're going faster.

Jamie Byron (23:21.545)
Most of them are running further than me. I just, I could run for a long time if it wasn't so boring. Get in my head. Yeah.

Josh Bostick (23:30.81)
I'm in the same boat. Did cross country back in high school and done miles pretty much it these days.

Jamie Byron (23:36.237)
Yeah, so that's why me and a few friends now got into the obstacle course races. Cause it's like run a mile, do this. Run a half a mile, climb this rope. I think it's good for a scatterbrained person like me that wants to do like a distance challenge. like 13 miles still. We have one coming up, but broken up into 30 obstacles makes it a lot more enjoyable.

Josh Bostick (23:57.407)
yeah, get to meet people and that's a good time.

Jamie Byron (23:59.211)
Yeah, definitely. There's a little bit of team building out there. You might get a stranger and grab their hand and be like, come on, I got you. Pull them up, pull them over the wall.

Josh Bostick (24:04.125)
You're coming up this wall. Cool. So two to three days of muscle and then realistically just a 10 ,000, eight to 10 ,000 step goal. You know, if it's the end of the day.

Jamie Byron (24:15.54)
Yeah, I would say for someone that's looking to do more of a like mobility gain some function at home with mobility stuff stretching from physical therapists that I've talked to and worked with and coaches that I talked to that do more like rehab work. I think they would say about the same one day a week or two days a week on kind of like a physical therapy style of movement where you're doing

stretching and range of motion. Like if you're stretching just one day a week, I think you'll get some return from that over the course of a year. Two times would be better, three times would be better.

Josh Bostick (24:51.911)
Gotcha, sweet. And then we did have some questions that came in on Instagram and whatnot. And so one was for like the older population, best way to get metabolism going.

Jamie Byron (25:07.839)
I love that question. There's a lot of ways to do that actually. think a lot of us think that our metabolism is like programmed. It's stuck genetically. This is just who I am. My metabolism is set. You can increase your metabolism by gaining muscle mass, which is a little bit tougher for the older population, but definitely doable. That's where the strength training is going to come in with that hypertrophy rep range and keeping a good protein -based diet or protein focus, maybe not protein based, but.

getting enough protein that you're recovering from the training. That's gotta be rough. That's a different story. So yeah, strength training, getting enough protein in that you're recovering and building new muscle. More daily movement. I wish I could pull up a chart like on the big screen. If you could pull up a chart of the way that our body's metabolism works. A lot of it is just thermal energy that's used.

Josh Bostick (25:40.721)
Keto or bust.

Jamie Byron (26:07.306)
for daily life, for your heart to beat, for us to sweat, for us to do normal body stuff. And about 15 % of it is our actual movement calories. So you have a chance to sway that number by two to 5 % just by more daily movement. That would be counted as raising your metabolic rate, just your daily activity. So I would say adding more muscle to your body.

This is good example of how I try to help people understand this. Let's say a 200 pound linebacker and a 110 pound cheerleader do the same workout. 200 pound linebacker's gonna burn a lot more calories, because he's 200 pounds of muscle energy that's being used versus 100 pounds of muscular energy. The same workout. If you have more muscle on you, every pound or two that you gain,

is going to help you burn more energy throughout the day because your body has to use energy to maintain that muscle. Gaining muscle is the easiest way to increase your metabolism.

Josh Bostick (27:07.602)
Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

Okay, sweet. I mean, that can be things, you know, instead of driving the car to the mailbox, take a walk down. I mean, there's just all right, sweet. And then another one was cardio for someone with back problems and limited mobility. So more than just the strength training, but you know, trying to get the heart rate up, I guess.

Jamie Byron (27:17.458)
Big walk? Yeah, get that extra hundred steps, why not?

Jamie Byron (27:31.57)
I like that one. guess it would. Yeah, that's a good one still. Yeah, that'll help to do with like your activity of daily movement. Maybe if it's someone that can't go for a walk, they might have to go for some other options. They do have, never used one. They have the arm treadmills where you're pumping your arms. I would say doing stuff like if you need to sit in a chair, you could do stuff like dribbling a ball around, you do stuff.

like medicine ball movements in a repetitive fashion where it's gonna get your heart rate up. So you're just moving with your arms just like you would if you were moving with your legs on a treadmill. Maybe a swimming or a pool -based workout might be good if someone has limited mobility and maybe they don't feel comfortable moving with their full weight on their legs while they're moving, standing.

Josh Bostick (28:10.395)
Okay, yeah.

Josh Bostick (28:23.851)
My dad actually does that. He just gets so bored walking on the treadmill. So for him, walking the length of the lap pool, he loves doing that versus, he's hauling. And so he's getting some resistance too. exactly. Yeah, so he's not bored and...

Jamie Byron (28:32.208)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (28:38.83)
Distance, yeah, that's like pushing a sled. I was in a pool with a guy doing that today with a guy that looked like he was probably in his late 60s. He was just pushing a boogie board back and forth the whole hour that I was swimming. Yeah, he's fat guy, a fat old guy.

Josh Bostick (28:51.186)
There you go.

nice. And then I don't know if we may have touched on this one already but the best thing for toning so you're trying to get toned down.

Jamie Byron (29:02.298)
Yes, I think that this word is what so much of the fitness industry is focused on. It means something different to everyone, but I think it generally means the same thing when you put it down pretty simply. People want to see the lines and shapes in their muscles. The definition, think definition is more accurate to what people mean. And that is going to come from a combination of building muscle and losing body fat. That sounds

Like that sounds like an AI answer. It's more complicated than it sounds to get very toned to the point where you're kind of looking like, like Marvel superhero level, where you're seeing chest definition and shoulder definition. That's going to take a few years of intentional building those muscles up. And then you're going to take a while for people who do bodybuilding shows. They're getting toned over the course of like a 36 week period, getting toned.

They're really on that long of a very intentional, very specific nutrition protocol. So if you want to say, well, if you can fit it in, I've seen plenty of people and I've done it where I knew my rice for dinner was going to be 45 grams of carbs. I'm going to have six Oreos instead. Just feel like it. So there's, there's going to be days that are like that. But I guess before I get too deep, build muscle.

Josh Bostick (30:10.897)
They're not having cheesecake.

There you go, that's true.

Josh Bostick (30:25.577)
there.

Jamie Byron (30:32.843)
and lose body fat is the way to see the muscles. The building of the muscle is gonna take work in the gym and a little bit on nutrition to build up the muscle. You might gain some weight. And then to lose the body fat that's on top of that muscle is gonna take a, not super strict, but a well -managed nutritional plan where you are in a slight calorie deficit that doesn't make your life miserable and slowly body fat will start to melt away.

Josh Bostick (31:02.857)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (31:03.459)
I probably talked for 45 minutes just on that one.

Josh Bostick (31:06.719)
You know, maybe we'll save that for another episode.

Jamie Byron (31:08.579)
Yeah, toning is the biggest theme of, I guess, when I start talking to, and this is probably 50 % of our clients now, people who are 40 plus or new moms who just have a better grasp of like, all right, now I'm training for different reasons. Now I'm training to stay strong for carrying this kid up and downstairs. Now I'm training to make sure I can run with my grandkids in the backyard.

people that are in their 60s, they're training for different reasons. They usually are so much easier to talk to versus a college student who's like, I want to drink beers and see my abs. I'm like, this is going to be rough because you just have the wrong mindset around fitness in general. And I was that person. So for the toning, that's usually a younger population. I guess it dwindles into

Josh Bostick (31:53.31)
next week.

Jamie Byron (32:06.653)
middle ages too as I know my mom and my mother -in -law, all they talk about is like, I just want to lose this last two pounds off my arm and tone my arms. And when I tell them, have to lift some weights, then they're like, nah, I'm not doing that.

Josh Bostick (32:19.987)
Yeah, I know where you're coming from on that one.

Jamie Byron (32:21.835)
Yep.

Josh Bostick (32:25.609)
is gonna be one of those I'm gonna have to edit out. had a question and it just... I think it was gonna just be more about just like trying to eat better foods, I guess. You know, I mean, for me, like one thing I've noticed with my blood sugars is I can have like strawberries, grapes, oranges, things like that. And so I have a CGM. So like I see it real time when the blood sugars are going up. so, yeah, that it's they actually

Jamie Byron (32:29.08)
that's good.

Jamie Byron (32:38.155)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (32:50.095)
That'd be cool to take a look at. I've never seen one of this. That'd be cool.

Josh Bostick (32:54.88)
Dexcom, which is like the type one, type two monitors, they just came out with an over the counter one. So like you can go to Walmart now and get a month long subscription for like 80 bucks. And you get a month long of insights to see what different foods do and how long it takes to come back to baseline. And it's pretty cool. think I've some trainers talking about it and I think it's an awesome tool.

Jamie Byron (33:03.657)
Anybody can get it.

Jamie Byron (33:09.12)
That's pretty cool.

Jamie Byron (33:15.978)
Yep. yeah, I've some fitness wellness influencers on Instagram do like, I'm gonna take my blood sugar every day to show you that I can use Snickers bar and still lose fat, stuff like that. Like, look, it's spiking my blood sugar, but that I'm still gonna lose weight, because I know how to manage my calories.

Josh Bostick (33:30.836)
Right. Yeah.

Josh Bostick (33:37.246)
Yep, for sure. And I think, you know, for me, like the processed foods is where I can see that it comes up and it just kind of stays there. Whereas, you know, strawberries and whole foods like that will come up, but it comes right back down, you know, and there's no having to go out and take a walk, do extra insulin, anything like that. I mean, is that something that you kind of focus on too is, I guess, you know, everybody talks about staying on the outside aisles of the grocery store.

Jamie Byron (33:51.178)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (33:55.582)
Yep.

Jamie Byron (34:02.631)
Yeah, I think that helps with still feeling like you're eating a good amount of food too. When you're eating the whole foods, they just tend to have less calories than the processed foods. And the processed foods are harder for us to get into our systems. Like you said, it's changing the levels for longer because it's taking longer for your body to process that. That's probably the biggest two benefits to where someone having, I'm sure you've seen the content where it's like a bowl of

candy that's the same amount of food as the bowl of strawberries and just like two totally different things even though it's the same amount of food. So for volumeters that's what I highly recommend. Potatoes are a lifesaver. The simple vegetables, lifesaver. We're just filling you up for not

Josh Bostick (34:49.216)
Yeah, and I mean, you look at those examples where it's, know, like, and I'm 10 Oreos, and then it's like 50 strawberries. And I'm like, I could, even if I wanted to, I couldn't eat that many strawberries. Like, there's no way. So definitely fill it up.

Jamie Byron (34:59.762)
Yeah, exactly. That's huge for volume eaters, which I've found most people like to eat until they're full at least. So you've got to have stuff that's going to fill you up for the appropriate amount of calories. That's good balance to try to work on.

Josh Bostick (35:08.82)
Yeah.

Josh Bostick (35:15.902)
Yeah, and had just have that stuff around too, you being able to go to the go to in the fridge, grab a handful of blueberries versus a handful of &Ms or something like that, you know.

Jamie Byron (35:18.556)
Yeah, for sure.

Jamie Byron (35:24.357)
Definitely, that's huge too. Yeah, berries are one of the most valuable ones. You could eat so many blueberries and raspberries and strawberries and they're not packing you in on the calories. You'll get sick of berries before you run out of calories.

Josh Bostick (35:36.203)
Definitely. well, that is the rundown that I had and the questions that had come in from Instagram and stuff. Anything extra that you want to throw out there that we didn't talk about that, you you usually try to pound into the client's heads.

Jamie Byron (35:53.884)
I think I've been a little bit more preachy lately about kind of riding out the uncomfortable changes because we try to make changes very slowly. So it's not like a 180 lifestyle change overnight that usually isn't going to stick. So I think getting into a lot of people's heads like this is a new thing for you. You haven't worked out for a while. You haven't thought twice about anything you're eating for a while. Like be a little bit prepared for this to be uncomfortable. Like it's not going to be like sitting down in your

first ever college math class, you're like, whoa, this is different. It's gonna be a little uncomfortable until our brains are wired for this. You start to pick up some things and get better at it and it becomes more natural. And then you go from someone that's, you go from identifying as someone like I'm trying to get it together or I try to work out. I try to eat well and you become, I'm someone that moves regularly. I just am someone that eats well. I am someone that does X, Y, Z to take care of myself. And it's

It takes a slow change. Don't try to, yeah, guess that's something we talk about with most people on our first phone calls is let's not try to change your whole world overnight. It's one baby step at a time and be patient with yourself, be nice to yourself.

Josh Bostick (37:05.653)
Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, trying to stay focused on some of those smaller changes, you know, you're not going to just wake up one morning and just be Chris Hemsworth or something like that. you know, getting up and down the stairs and you're not out of breath, that's freaking huge. I mean, things like that are things that we don't realize that are changing because

Jamie Byron (37:15.8)
Yeah, exactly.

Jamie Byron (37:21.013)
Yep.

Jamie Byron (37:26.201)
Mm -hmm.

Josh Bostick (37:27.073)
We're not shedding 15 pounds in two weeks or something like that. But the long term longevity of being able to go up and downstairs without having to sit down, that's so big.

Jamie Byron (37:31.087)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (37:36.57)
Definitely, yeah. Quality of life is, and I think a lot of people will realize that we're all in our own fitness journey. As we get older, it's easier to see. Fitness is, in my eyes now, 99 % about quality of life. That other 1 % is, I guess you look nice if you're in good shape. That's what...

Josh Bostick (37:57.054)
for the few times us people in Texas make it down to the beach or something like that, you know, we get to show off.

Jamie Byron (38:00.291)
Yeah, right. think this to myself every year now. I'm doing a few movements here and there that are just for aesthetics. I'm like, I took my shirt off like three times this year. I'm like, what am I doing in public? What am I doing? So yeah, quality of life is always gonna be more applicable and get more bang for your buck on doing stuff that's just good for you because it's good for you.

Josh Bostick (38:14.101)
Right.

Josh Bostick (38:22.923)
Yeah, I totally appreciate that. And so where do people find you if they like what you've talked about? I mean, I can put your Instagram, both your personal and then the good life training. I'll put both of those accounts in the show notes so people can go there.

Jamie Byron (38:39.628)
Yep, we are local to Nashville. We train at a studio that's in Franklin, Tennessee, about an hour south of there. So if you're around there, come visit us on the regular internet. It's just goodlifetrain .com. There's no ing there. Goodlifetrain .com. And yeah, mostly on Instagram, you know, try to do the TikTok marketing and like, I just feel like a grandpa on there.

Josh Bostick (38:48.521)
Luke Holmes, if you're listening, you know where to find him now.

Josh Bostick (38:55.072)
Okay.

Josh Bostick (39:06.037)
Hey, I'll say that's how I found you as one of your reels way back in the day. So yeah.

Jamie Byron (39:09.816)
That's a deal. I think that's more applicable because I can also share those to Facebook. So that works with my 30 to 50 year old. That's who I want to mostly work with because those are people I can closely relate to. That's where I am, Instagram.

Josh Bostick (39:26.615)
Yeah, and I'll say, even if someone's not ready to make the move to join in and start with you today, your Instagram has a ton of information on it. you did a post, was it a couple weeks ago, about how there's no booty twerking or anything on your profile page. it's true. I mean, you've got really good information. mean, it has you doing movements, and it's a really good source. So I appreciate all you put out there.

Jamie Byron (39:41.485)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (39:48.267)
Thanks, try to. It's tough. It's tough to navigate the fitness world of the internet because there is a lot of that. There's a lot of people watch videos because there's some skin. People watch videos because it's high intensity and people are sweating. And yeah, we're, we're, that's not the good life training brand. We just want to be with regular people, help make your days better, actually become.

friends with lot of clients, a lot of people that we work with for two, three years and we're talking to people about their lives and their bodies, very personal stuff and become good friends with the people. So it's an enjoyable process. And if it's not, I'm sure we also have plenty of trainer friends that we could refer you to. Yeah, definitely. That's huge. Has to be an enjoyable experience. It could be the best workout in the world, but if it's no fun for you, there might not last too long.

Josh Bostick (40:25.196)
Yeah, for sure. You gotta find the right fit.

Josh Bostick (40:35.422)
If you're not going to come back and do it again, it's not worth it.

Jamie Byron (40:37.686)
Yeah, definitely. I had one of my very first shifts of being a personal trainer ever, 2016. I was with a brand new client and we were pushing the sled. My boss came over to me and goes, let's cut the sled. She's never going to come back. I was like, okay, you got it. call. Good call. We don't want to do that. And then the same guy, one of the things I tell myself all the time, he's like, your clients like this is your aunt or your mom or your sister. This is somebody's aunt. This is somebody's sister. And

Josh Bostick (40:52.086)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (41:06.282)
This lady is relying on you to help her and that's all we're here for.

Josh Bostick (41:10.444)
I can vouch that if you want to do some damage, you can put a workout together that will leave you burning.

Jamie Byron (41:16.67)
yeah. We want to torture people. can't anybody to do that.

Josh Bostick (41:21.028)
Well, Jamie, I really appreciate it. I'm sure we'll have you back on and maybe it's, you know, for one of those deep dive toning discussions in the future. But again, really appreciate you and, you know, all you've put out there and all you're doing for everybody.

Jamie Byron (41:28.52)
Yeah.

Jamie Byron (41:34.578)
Yeah, thanks. was good chat. I think there's definitely some nuggets in there people could pull out maybe use for themselves. Fitness is very personalized, individualized. So not everything applies to everyone. Kind of, it's always a journey. Figure yourself out, trial and error and keep taking baby steps forward everybody out there.

Josh Bostick (41:45.454)
For sure.

Josh Bostick (41:51.064)
Yeah, it's all about spreading ideas and opening up new ways of thinking. It's not a regimen to put into place tomorrow.

Jamie Byron (42:00.316)
Yeah, definitely come from a place of a growth mindset, not fixed. You're not stuck. You got control. Take control. Yep. Thank you.

Josh Bostick (42:06.542)
Don't take that first step. Cool, Jamie. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.