How many of you have resolved to get more movement in your life, if not for weight loss, but for all the other benefits? Mental health focus, energy, productivity, or just generalized well-being? As I've often said, I wish exercise and weight loss would just get a divorce because the benefits of moving your body are so much more profound than the numbers on the scale.
But if you've been out of the game for a bit, you may feel intimidated or just don't know where to start. Well, I'm having a guest today who is going to share not only how to get started, but for those of you who are in it, how to level up your fitness routine.
Meet Dylan Conrad. He's the owner of DC Fitness, a premier online coaching and accountability practice offering group, and one-on-one online fitness and coaching.
He's been at this gig for nearly 20 years and has tremendous experience and expertise as we'll discuss. He was even my trainer back in the day. This is going to be a super informative episode, so let's dig in.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode
"Stop chasing the sexy. It's like your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend that you just kept chasing and chasing and chasing. Nothing good came out of that. It's the same thing with your fitness and your nutrition. There is no new thing. The basic stuff that's been here for ages, it still works and it's going to still work." - Dylan A. Conrad
Connect with Dylan Conrad
Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim
3 Ways to Get More From Adrienne
1. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Now and get the 5 Bites to Fasttrack your Health and Wellbeing https://dradrienneyoudim.com/newsletter/
2. Buy the Book. The current weightloss strategies have failed you. Its time to address your true hunger. Purchase 'Hungry for More' https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-More-Stories-Science-Inspire/dp/0578875632
3. Leave us a Rating and Review via Apple Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-bite/id1504295718
How many of you have resolved to get more movement in your life, if not for weight loss, but for all the other benefits? Mental health focus, energy, productivity, or just generalized well-being? As I've often said, I wish exercise and weight loss would just get a divorce because the benefits of moving your body are so much more profound than the numbers on the scale.
But if you've been out of the game for a bit, you may feel intimidated or just don't know where to start. Well, I'm having a guest today who is going to share not only how to get started, but for those of you who are in it, how to level up your fitness routine.
Meet Dylan Conrad. He's the owner of DC Fitness, a premier online coaching and accountability practice offering group, and one-on-one online fitness and coaching.
He's been at this gig for nearly 20 years and has tremendous experience and expertise as we'll discuss. He was even my trainer back in the day. This is going to be a super informative episode, so let's dig in.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode
"Stop chasing the sexy. It's like your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend that you just kept chasing and chasing and chasing. Nothing good came out of that. It's the same thing with your fitness and your nutrition. There is no new thing. The basic stuff that's been here for ages, it still works and it's going to still work." - Dylan A. Conrad
Connect with Dylan Conrad
Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim
3 Ways to Get More From Adrienne
1. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Now and get the 5 Bites to Fasttrack your Health and Wellbeing https://dradrienneyoudim.com/newsletter/
2. Buy the Book. The current weightloss strategies have failed you. Its time to address your true hunger. Purchase 'Hungry for More' https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-More-Stories-Science-Inspire/dp/0578875632
3. Leave us a Rating and Review via Apple Podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-bite/id1504295718
Adrienne Youdim
So welcome, Dylan. I'm so excited to have you here. We have a personal and professional history, and I can't help but recall the 5 a.m. workouts we used to do together back in the day.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I can remember those very vividly. Thank you so much for having me on. And yeah, we go back, I think, what, 10, what are we, 2023? So maybe five, seven years, 5 a.m. workouts, good times.
Adrienne Youdim
It really was a long while. Well, you are you definitely have a lot of knowledge, experience and expertise. So I'm super glad to have you on the podcast to share all of that. But first, tell us a little bit about what got you here. I know you have a personal story around it.
Dylan A. Conrad
yeah so what got me here all the way to this podcast um yeah again thanks so much for having me on i'm like i'm really honored to be on here i've i've been following you forever and uh you know it's it's really cool that um you know someone's so science-based and so such a leader in the field would have me on. So thank you. But yeah, so for me, you know, I started, I've been coaching for about 16 years now, I think I started in college. But this kind of goes back before college, you know, I was really into athletics. I was a little overweight. And I realized like, I can put in work can actually transform my mind and my body. And I thought it was really cool. And, you know, as a subpar athlete, but then I started training in the offseason and like, became better. That was really my first introduction, like, okay, this is I can change some stuff. I have control of this. This is cool. And then so fast forward college, I was studying kinesiology, I was gonna do pre physical therapy. And I had started actually a personal training job at school, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo go Mustangs will plug and. Yeah, so I was I was training there. I loved it. You know, I moved back home to the Valley, Los Angeles area from over here. And I started working at the Equinox over here. And, you know, I never really thought I was just like, I'm just gonna take a year off and go to physical therapy school. And then I just fell deeper and deeper in love with it, realized I could really make a profession out of it. And, you know, I'm just really passionate. I'm sure as you are just about helping people, like, it's just the most fun. It just kind of gets me up in the morning. Yeah, and so yeah, so I opened a gym, did personal training, opened my own gym in Brentwood. That's where our 5 a.m. torture sessions took place. And then I closed the gym down during the pandemic and I just operate completely online now. So that's kind of how we got here.
Adrienne Youdim
I like that you mentioned that you had this, that you were kind of overweight. And so that's, that's often an intention to get physically active. And I remember personally growing up, that was the only reason that I exercise regularly was because of my concerns about my body. But you also mentioned the mind. And I think That's what we really find where the transformation occurs is that exercise, while we really think of it always in terms of weight loss, it does so much for our mental, emotional well-being. And that becomes like the backdoor to weight loss or soothing with anything, you know, with any, your substance of choice. It's the mind piece that we really need to hone in on because that's where the transformation happens.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, and just to kind of add that to like, I was thinking about this, you know, I wouldn't, you know, I consider myself somewhat successful in what I do. You know, I have 13 employees and we have about 170 clients right now. But, you know, I think I wouldn't be good at what I do in terms of profession if I never got into fitness and nutrition, because that really just taught me like the life skills and like that mindset of like, preparing and having systems and structure in place. And that really created the ability for me to kind of like, I guess, scale that in a sense, because now it's kind of like systematized Indian kind of second nature. But yeah, I agree with you to bring it all back. Yeah, it takes.
Adrienne Youdim
It's all mindset 100% so much more that what we gain is so much more than the numbers on the scale. So it is the new year. And of course, a lot of intention setting around exercising, getting physically active and bringing movement into our lives. But a lot of people have not done it for a long while. And there is this kind of intimidation around getting started. So I would love if you could offer some insight into how do we get started if we've been, you know, out of the game for some time and how do we address that feeling of fear and intimidation that often comes along with that.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I think there's a lot of fear and intimidation of either like, oh, I'm starting this and I haven't done it for a while. Or I've done this so many times in the past and like, given up so many times that there's like a why would I even start this in the first place? And I think, first and foremost, just know that it's like, it's normal to feel that way. It's normal to feel intimidated. It's normal to feel like I just don't want to do this. And I think, you know, the reason that we kind of make all these attempts and fall off, there's a lot of reasons. But I think the biggest one is what we're doing isn't really sustainable. We're kind of like, you know, I think as Americans, we really just want everything we want now. So we want to do everything at once instead of diving in fully. What I always coach my clients on, we just start with like one really small habit. And when you look at like the science of habit formation, all the research is pointing towards if we focus on just one variable at a time we'll have like a 70 percent or higher success rate and we're focused on two or three things two or three changes we're gonna have like a five percent success rate or less right and so it's really just like i encourage everyone listening to this to really think i don't know how hard this is so i get it but think like really long term you know what are the habits of someone who's where you want to be in terms of like your nutrition and your exercise and your lifestyle like time to go to sleep and kind of just reverse engineer and start with something like so small And that first habit you set up, you really just want to think of something that's so small, it's almost laughable. Like if someone's like, yeah, 64 ounces of water, you're like, that's it? Like, that's the kind of reaction you want to how easy that first habit is going to be. And it doesn't even have to be exercise at first, like one of my clients, like, we want to get the systems in place, right? We want to get make sure they you know, are getting enough sleep first. We want to make sure they're taking the right supplements. We want to make sure there's all these like little easy wins we can get before we even hop into exercise, you know. And so kind of just like this one habit at a time approach really kind of extends things that makes it more organic and feels a lot less like rushed. And you really, this way you focus a lot more on the process because I've realized when myself and my clients focus on the end result, we always fail. But when we're focused on like the actual process of just getting these habits done these daily wins, getting these systems together, a lot higher success rate and just a lot more, a lot less like anxiety over it and a lot less like, bs, you know, it's
Adrienne Youdim
It's like, it's not sexy, but it's so practical and true. And I feel like there's even in me when I hear this, there's a slight aversion because I want big, you know, I want big games. But I think it's important to your point to look at what would happen in a year if we didn't start small. What happened last year? What happened the year before? Because These intentions are not new. Oftentimes, we've made this intention year and year again. And the reality is that had we really gone small a year ago, two years ago, we would have been where we're at. And this is not about being upset or not forgiving of not having started, but then taking that with a beginner's mindset and recognizing, OK, in this moment, if we can really just discipline ourselves around that unsexy proposition, right? Start small, that a year from now, you really will see the massive impact that you're looking for. And I also want to reiterate something else that you said, which is be afraid and do it anyway. I mean, that's something that I use in so many of my professional ventures. It's scary to do something new, but you can acknowledge that, know that it's, to your point, normal, common human experience, and yet you can do it anyway.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, 100%. It's just like, I think there's so many parallels in how we do fitness and how we do nutrition to actual life. And if you're someone who really wants to get more out of life, This can be kind of that like vehicle for you, you know, really getting good and trying these things. You know, if going to the gym scares you or if going to like a group fitness scares you or, you know, just the whole process just is like really intimidating. If you can have if you can accomplish that, like imagine how empowered you're going to feel. Imagine how that accomplishment is going to make you feel and that confidence to other areas of your life, professionally, relationship wise, whatever it is. Right. It's funny, because like, I always felt like, this is kind of a Trojan horse, like fitness and nutrition, or just getting more out of life. Because if you can, if you can kind of master this area, you can really do anything like you can get so structured and realize, like, because this stuff, yeah, it can be hard. But once you achieve that, and you get to the next level, it's like, Oh, okay, I just did that. Like, I'm definitely capable of more.
Adrienne Youdim
It's a it's like many things. It's like that throwing the stone in the pond and the ripple effect. I love that ripple. So, okay, let's say we buy into the small changes and we get started, but then there's that drop-off, right? So January, we're all jazzed. I find that February is the new January.
Dylan A. Conrad
Right.
Adrienne Youdim
Like there's a little bit of a lag these days you know we need to kind of get our mind into place, but invariably somewhere along the way, motivation wanes, and there's a drop off. And so, What is your guidance and what are your tips on how to maintain motivation? And also if you could speak to, I find that people want that feeling of excitement all the time. And like, it just doesn't happen, right? It doesn't happen in our workout. It doesn't happen in our relationships, right? There's a time where things just become like humdrum. what do we do in that moment when that motivation wanes and the inertia sets in?
Dylan A. Conrad
Know that first of all, that's a really good thing. Like when that motivation ends, because what that motivation does a lot of times, a lot of times, yeah, it gets us started, but it kind of gets us what I call like being too cute. Like we try to do way too much at once. So, you know, we were talking about, you were talking about boredom. it's supposed to be boring like it's good if it's boring that means that we get to focus on the habits instead of motivation because motivation isn't linear like it's up it's down it's sideways and right now you might you might have the intention of starting but you have like zero motivation that's fine too that's actually really good because now we get to look back and say, okay, what are these habits that we're trying to, you know, what are we trying to achieve here? And then we can just systematize it. You know, I brought up the example of water earlier today, but like, okay, 64 ounces. Okay, let me go on Amazon right now and get a 64 ounce bottle of water. And just every single night, I'm gonna set an alarm on my phone and say, I'm gonna refill that water bottle every single night. You know, and then you're just making it so it's not even- I did it, by the way.
Adrienne Youdim
I bought like my 115th water bottle.
Dylan A. Conrad
I'd scour those. I'll tell you guys, I have a 15 gallon. I'm like, you're drinking like a whole gallon.
Adrienne Youdim
I've got a lot of water bottles.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like, you know, just kind of like that. It's such a good, you know, that's when I get most excited to work with people when that motivation wanes off, because then we get to really just go hard on the habits and just go on the hard on like the unsexy stuff. And just like looking at all the data weekly, looking at all the habits weekly, stacking when stacking new habits. I think habit stacking, like once you get that first habit, I'd kind of go there sooner. But once you get that first habit down, week, two weeks, stack another one on top, then stack another and keep going until it is this sexy beast. And you do keep trying new things out. And you're taking cold plunges. And it's like this whole interesting thing, you know, that you're really looking at your body a lot differently. But um, yeah, I think that I think that just looking back on it. Yeah.
Adrienne Youdim
It's also a matter of I think motivation often comes on the back end, right? Like, yeah, we want motivation to get us in the game. But the reality is that sometimes, you know, lacing up our sneakers is a matter of just faith. It's an act of faith, right? Knowing that on the other end, when you do start to feel those benefits, that that is the source of motivation.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, absolutely. Like, and yeah, motivation comes in waves. It comes in all shapes and sizes. Like you might've like PR in a workout or done something really cool that you're like, wow, I really wouldn't. And that's motivating for you. And that kind of lifts you up. And it could be just like you did a, you know, a spin class and where you don't want to see your class. And I don't know if you're still doing orange theory, the orange theory class, and you just get like the endorphins out and you feel really, really good. And that's motivating. So motivation can also just doesn't have to be like week to week at a cost to be day to day, hour to hour. motivation kind of going throughout the day.
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah. And I like that. I like the way you state that it comes in waves because it allows us to tolerate the hum drum knowing that this will pass and there will be another wave that will feel differently. Yeah. So another thing that I come across often in the in my medical practice, patients will come in. And usually if they come in to see a quote, weight loss doctor, it's because they've done it all right. And one of the things that they've often done is they'll come in and say, you know, I got a personal trainer, I've been working with him or her two days a week, I didn't lose an ounce And so I canned it, you know, I quit. And that becomes one of the failures. Can you talk a little bit about your views on exercise and weight loss? And what is a realistic expectation in that regard? And, and, yeah, speak to that a little bit.
Dylan A. Conrad
I think it really all depends. A lot of times, especially if you haven't exercised for a while or if you're a personal trainer or whatever you're doing, you have a lot of weights involved, you're gonna hold a lot of glycogen. Typically that's about six weeks and the scale doesn't move because you're holding more carbohydrates in your body. So that's a normal thing. You gotta kinda look back on Well, I'm going to tell you this. I'm not sure if you say this on your podcast, but I tell my clients this all the time. It's 80% nutrition. It's 80% nutrition. So probably the scale didn't move because you got your nutrition dialed in. That's why they're seeing you. And that's kind of my thoughts. And I'm very transparent with all my clients that come in through. I'm like, it's 80% nutrition, 20% training, and 100% mindset. And so if you didn't like working with your personal trainer, don't work with them 100% it finds something that's you know sustainable and what is sustainability sustainability is something that's realistic and something that's enjoyable right and so that could even be walking it can be even be you know going to a workout class that could be playing a sport it's really about finding like what you actually enjoy and then working with someone like adrian on the nutrition part that's actually going to move the needle and kind of get those results but It does, you know, it really does depend on a lot of factors in terms of if you were working with someone like Adrian or nutritionists or. weight loss doctor, and you were exercising at the same time, then it's like, okay, this is kind of like normal. Let's start looking at other markers. Let's start looking at your body composition. Like you guys still use the InBody there?
Adrienne Youdim
Yes, we do.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. Great scan, get an InBody scan. And look at these other measurements, Progress Pictures Weekly, that you really can kind of track your progress, but also really fall in love with the actual process. Because the minute that you start focusing on these results, is the minute that you fail, because you're just gonna get obsessed with it. And it's not gonna be fun. It's just me, you're doing something for an end result, right? Instead of doing something, you know, to focus on this process of like, really enjoying it, getting better mentally, like, you know, discipline, finding that discipline muscle, getting that mental workout, so to speak.
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah. And I like the idea of using different parameters of success. We really are so hyper-focused on the numbers. And I don't want to dismiss that because it's important. But what is happening to your body composition, what is happening to your physique, what is happening to the other physiologic parameters. So we see blood pressure come down really quickly when people start exercising or blood sugar comes down even before people start losing weight. So having a broader sense, right, of what the outcome is. Yeah. And then I also want to address this, like the nutrition and the exercise, because it is true that it is, I would say even 90% nutrition in terms of like the weight loss piece, right? But that doesn't mean, I think when people hear that, then the response is, then why should I exercise? If it's 90% nutrition, why should I exercise? And there's so many reasons, right? Like preserving body composition, maintaining your metabolism, preventing weight regain, those are all important, right? But it's also, I think, important to acknowledge what we do in our minds when we start exercising. We start to like, do you find that your clients will talk about, like trading, you know, like, because I exercise, then I deserve this, or I exercise. And so they justify maybe high calorie shakes or high calorie, right. So it's a matter of like, not using that as an excuse for working off a heavy meal or as an excuse for having a heavy meal. It's really using these things as separate containers, as separate tools that can work together. And before I let you speak on that, I'll just say that there was this article that was published in the JAMA a couple of years ago, the Journal of American Medical Association that showed that trackers were actually causing people to gain weight, that we shouldn't be using these calorie trackers or actually exercise trackers. And one of the reasons why was because people would look at the tracker that often inflates the calorie burnage, right? Like you look at your tracker, and you're like, Oh, my God, I lost 3000 calories, which is super hyper inflated, but then would use that information to justify unhealthy behaviors. So that's, you know, it's it is it does come back to mindset, right? 100% different.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. in my soul. Yeah, it's all human behavior, like at the end day, like, so that's why I love this, you know, what I do, I'm sure you love what you do. It's because like, human behavior will break any system that you put in place. And so it's so fun to just figure out, okay, how can we just like, reorganize this and humanize it so this person can actually have success on it? What was that? Did you want me to speak on something, by the way?
Adrienne Youdim
Well, I mean, are you asking me to recall what I asked you? That's great. Big ask.
Dylan A. Conrad
Not everything. Um, yeah, I guess maybe you could just break down. Yeah.
Adrienne Youdim
Well, we're I was just talking about this whole concept of like, well, maybe you can speak to this whole concept of like, a tat, you know, like, yeah, because I burned. Yeah, then I do this. And can you also speak to the calorie burnage? Because that's something that I feel like, oh, my goodness, these numbers on the tracker. And it feels like the Bible shut, shut your trackers off.
Dylan A. Conrad
Right. The first thing I tell people if they're going to use my fitness ball, like you've got to take the exercise thing off because it's just going to like they're they're so inaccurate. And whether that's on like hyperinflated, hyperinflated, like strength training doesn't burn that many calories. Cardio burns more calories, but it's still not that many. Hey, it's like the same the the epoch excess post oxygen consumption that everyone was like. this is when HIIT was really big, I think like 2010-ish, they were saying, oh, because you can't get all the oxygen during your workout, the rest of the day, you have all this excess oxygen to make up, and that's gonna boost your metabolism. It's not that much. And actually, even the muscle versus fat thing, muscle is more metabolically active, but not that much. It's like barely. So all these factors and these trackers, we kind of have to ignore because First of all, they're hyperinflated and they're just, they're kind of like putting us in that mindset like you were talking about, kind of, okay, because I did burn more, I'm gonna eat more, I'm gonna do this because I did this. You gotta understand, you're not punishing yourself for exercising. It's not a punishment. It's a get to. You get to exercise. There's so many people in this world who don't get to exercise for whatever reason. And a lot of, obviously we're, guessing your your listeners are in America like you look at other countries like they don't have the resources and then the you know podcasts and all this stuff that they can learn all this information to change themselves and to better themselves and we do so it's really like it's it's a get to it's not a have to it's not like you're punishing your body so you can reward your body with like extra food at night you know it's kind of
Adrienne Youdim
that people like, I know that people are gonna listen to this and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get to I'm so privileged. But I'll tell you when I really find that it hits home is even in my patients who don't report loving exercise, when there's like a meniscal tear, or there's, you know, a rotator cuff injury, it's like, when it's taken away from us. And sadly, this is, you know, human nature. That's when we're like, You know, that really was a gift. And so if we could turn that light on before it's taken away, it's so important and so valuable. You know, you mentioned, you've mentioned cardio and strength training. So that's a great segue. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because a lot of times people are like, okay, I'm all in. But I don't know what to do. Do I do cardio? Do I do strength training? How much of each? How much is enough? What do you recommend? How do you break it down?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I always, you know, I would say like, first of all, I look at the each person. I'm like, Okay, what do you actually like to do? What do you feel like is realistic? And I kind of start from there. So someone's like, I love running. So okay, we'll start with running. I just want to get you small wins. I'm going to get you into the motivation, momentum, all that stuff, right. But if I were going to, if I had like a robot and they're like, I'll just do whatever you tell me to do. Like, I don't care. I would say strength training, just because you want to kind of have that as your base, because there are so many benefits to strength training and having the cardiovascular component. I'm kind of stacked on top of that. And now how do I want to organize that? What should my workout sessions look? First thing is, it's like you're talking like a meniscal tear, like you don't want to get injured. That's like the last thing you want. So you start with every session with some foam rolling, you can look at videos on YouTube, it's very easy, you can get up on Amazon for like 10 bucks. Most gyms have them getting some stretching, you know, anything is better than nothing. And then from there, you can get into your strength training. If you're new, like using the machines, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with using machines. Like you're still gonna get strength benefit, bone density benefit, like a lot of different benefits from using machines. Obviously, as you get good at machines and you kind of master it, or if you have experience working with a trainer, group fitness, all that, and you kind of know the motions, then you can do some more functional training like squats, deadlifts, pushups, all that stuff. But really, once you get good at that, then it's about stacking the cardio on top. And now that's going to depend. Like, you know, obviously we were talking earlier about, um, female physiology and. That's going to be a different exercise. And, uh, you know, if you have a woman with a natural menstrual cycle, there's going to be two different parts, you know, the follicular phase and the legal phase that they feel completely different and they feel stronger in one and probably want to change up the workouts. And someone has a menopause menopause, post-menopause, um, even birth control. Like those are all things that are going to change, but just, um, of what you should be doing in terms of like your cardio, your hit and your, your sorry, your steady state cardio, which is longer, your hit, which is shorter, more intense, and then your strength training. And kind of all of those are going to change from basis physiology you have. But before you get into there, you kind of need to master the basics, right? Just get really, really good at each kind of prong of that. And then you can as you get into it, and you have this all second nature that you can start exploring that or if you're working with a coach, someone like Adrian,
Adrienne Youdim
Well, I wonder if, you know, if we didn't want to, like, complicate things, right? Because it could get very in-depth and specified. But at the same time, when we complicate it, it just, you know, it makes it less likely to be achieved. So let's say somebody is starting out at home. They don't want to go to a gym. Talk a little bit about, you know, like what would you, how would you start with that strength training piece if you had free weights? And, and can you also talk a little bit about, uh, lightweights versus heavy, the fear of bulking up and how to, you know, prevent that from happening? Where would you recommend someone who's just walking into their garage and, you know, starting with some free weights?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, you know, again, it just depends kind of where you're starting at in terms of your, your fitness level and what you're let's just assume for the purposes of this, it's new year.
Adrienne Youdim
And, you know, I haven't done anything for a year. And I'm just getting, you know, into the swing of things.
Dylan A. Conrad
And but you've you've been, you've had an experience like exercising the past?
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah, maybe not, not necessarily me, but like the average person out there who, who really has been off their game for a while. How about starting with strength training?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I would say one to two sets, like eight to 12. Don't go, especially in the first week or two, like don't go heavy. Don't push yourself to failure. Don't like try to feel burn, like just get the movements, get yourself in there and get your body like rocking. Now you can kind of like gauge it based on your soreness and how, you know, much more intense you want to go. In terms of bulking up, like, yeah, you know, I'm a big dude. I'm what I'm five, 10. 193 and like 14, 13% body fat. Like I, this took me a long time. This took me like 20 years. And I hear always people coming like, well, I don't want to get as big as you. I'm like, well, don't worry. You're not like it. This took me forever. So just know, like, it's not going to be overnight. Like, yes, you might feel like you are more muscular, especially in the beginning, because you are storing more glycogen. This does go away at week six, week six to week eight. So that will eventually go away. But, um, you know, in terms of lighter weights or heavier weights, You can build muscle on light weights and you can build muscle on heavy weights. All the research right now is based upon how deep into muscular failure are you going into, and that's going to be what's going to build muscle. Talk about that.
Adrienne Youdim
What does that mean, muscular failure?
Dylan A. Conrad
For example, if you're doing an exercise like a hamstring crawling machine, that's where your muscle just will not fire anymore and you cannot go. Right. And so that's kind of like the deeper you can go into there. That's where it'd be a matter of reps.
Adrienne Youdim
It sounds like reps and weights.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah.
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah. So pushing, so pushing with whatever way you're at to the, to the point where you can't go anymore, you can't go anymore. And that may be more important than necessarily amping up or starting out at super heavyweights.
Dylan A. Conrad
100% it's way better. I always encourage people to start with like moderate, you know, weights rep ranges 12 to 20, like just kind of like get the motion down. If you do want to build muscle, it's way safer with lighter weights, right? And so you can go lighter and moderate. If you're advanced, then yeah, go heavy. But that's, you know, you don't ever need a lift, like under probably six, six reps, you know, there's really no reason for that.
Adrienne Youdim
I like to hear about the lighter weights because I know, you know, like when I was doing group fitness, I was doing heavier weights and now I'm, you know, working out out of my garage. I have my Peloton. I, I live close to the beach, thankfully. And so I go out for a run. Um, but like, for example, the Peloton came with three pound weights and I was like, But I actually find that if I do a full minute of, you know, tricep something on three pounds, I'm like, whoo. Yeah, burns.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, you don't need a whole lot of weight. Like you can definitely, you know, like I was saying, if you're picking your own weight, and it's lighter weight, and you're going into like muscular failure, and you feel like that deep burning, you don't really need too much weight. And a lot of stuff, you could just do bodyweight, to be honest with you. So like someone who's just starting, you know, in their garage and hasn't done anything in a while, it's like, just start with like the things that work, you know, the squats, pushups, um, you know, any hinging movement, like a deadlift, like just kind of keep it really basic. And, you know, like Adrian was saying, if you just have really light weights, you can do a bunch of tricep kickbacks, um, bicep curls and that type of thing for a minute, two minutes, and really start getting some effect on that, even though you don't have too much weight.
Adrienne Youdim
So, um, I like that. I'm just thinking because I really, I like my cardio. It's how I get out of my head. I used to love the, the weight component of group fitness, but doing it on my own, um, bores the heck out of me. And so I've, I've kind of fallen out of that practice. But I will say going frequent repetitions on lower weights makes me feel like I don't have to cycle back through it again multiple times. Yeah, I just do an exercise and then I move on. And that helps me. It helps me maintain that pace of continuing to go forward.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I mean, look, at the end of the day, like your heart doesn't know what your body is doing, you know, so like, if you're working hard, you're working hard, and your body is going to respond to it. So it's really like, yeah, and all the research, again, is on muscular failure, but like, that's only one set, you know, you really only need to do one set, especially if it's lighter weights, it's like, it's fine. You can just like, once you get it in, you can just move on to the next one like you're doing.
Adrienne Youdim
Yay. Thank you for that. I'm going to pat myself on the back. So let's say we get started. And, you know, a lot of times people will, will get in the groove of a regimen or routine, and then they're doing that thing over and over again, they're going to soul cycle, you know, three times a week, over and over again, they're doing, so there's a lot of repetition. But then our bodies can get efficient at doing that same thing. And then we find that we're kind of stagnant. So is that a thing? Yeah, 100%. And so how do we switch it up? How do you recommend maintaining that sense of gains?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, you know, it's it's a lot of different factors, right? You can like if you're getting really stagnant in SoulCycle, I know like Orange Theory, for example, you get a score afterwards. So like if you're feeling stagnant, just like beat your score every time, right? But if you're kind of just getting like mentally over it, it's okay to to switch it up like it's totally fine. If you're doing SoulCycle for four months, you're over it, you just can't go to another SoulCycle class, you feel like you plateaued, then switch it up. But If you're doing weight training or in your home, you can switch variables out constantly to get a new adaptation stimulus. You don't have to keep doing the same thing. You can always switch it up and always go in between like, okay, I'm gonna be focusing on more muscle building. I'm gonna be focused on more energy systems work here. I'm gonna be focused on more strength. There's a lot of different factors you can cycle in and out of if you are getting bored at home or at a gym, for example. If you're doing a class, you're kind of glued into that class. So you can, I would say, it just depends like athletes even don't plateau for 8-12 weeks i feel like the plateau most people get to is like a mental plateau they're just like i can't do any more of this whole cycle i can't do any more of x y and z so it's like Noticing that, and a lot of times it does decrease your intensity, which obviously you won't see any results anymore, you won't see any more new gains like Adrian was saying. So at that point, yeah, definitely switch it out. Don't just feel like you need to stick to something, just stick to something because you signed up for it.
Adrienne Youdim
I think a lot of times what happens is it's not even a matter of feeling bored or like you have to stick to it, but it's more of this is what I'm doing and it's great and they enjoy it or they're in that routine. But then they're not seeing six months or a year out, they're not seeing the changes physiologically.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, I mean, like, that's, you know, in the beginning of your work, like, whatever you're doing, you are going to see a, like a very nonlinear increase in everything. So you need what are called like beginner gains. And that's where you see like a very, everything, your strength levels shoot up, your cardio shoots up, like everything in the beginning, you're getting strong and endured, and, you know, leaner at such a rapid rate, but that does drop off. And that is like, totally normal, you know, and it's okay, like, hey, if you only went up like a rep next week, or two and a half pounds next week on the same exact exercise, that's totally fine. You know, that's still an increase, even if you stay the same the next week, you know, I will say like, once you feel like you can't go up and you know, reps or anything without compensating for your form or strength, then it's like, okay, let's switch out the program and start taking putting new exercises in here.
Adrienne Youdim
It does sound like it's a matter to some degree of just managing your expectations, you know, what you're going to see there is going to be a plateau or a steady state before your next, you know.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. And it depends what your program looks like, how you set your own program up, you know. And so, for example, if you're doing a class, you're kind of just like you're at the helm of the instructor and whoever the instructor is, and then mixing it up, right. And you are going to hit a plateau because you're basically doing the same thing week after week. But if you're working out on your own or working at home, you know, at a gym, then you then you can break through plateaus easy because you have full control over your workout routine. So I say like create one two to four weeks at least. And I would say only two weeks just because you might get bored of it of the same routine. is kind of what you should be aiming for. We have the best results with like people who are like accountants and just, you know, just kind of like the, you know, the monotony of just the boring work, right? They get it because they see this and they're like, oh, it's just kind of like part of their normal routine now and they can kind of just like move through it systematically and just kind of, you know, enjoy the boring.
Adrienne Youdim
It's funny that monotony is actually so effective. I mean, even in the weight loss data, they've shown that like people who don't vary their diets very much. And I have like the same like type of salad that I pack, that I've been packing and taking to work for the last 10 years. But they show that, you know, if you can, you know, lack of variability is actually effective.
Dylan A. Conrad
100% same thing with habit formations, right? The less amount of variables you can have, the better. And I think most of us, I don't know, you can speak to this probably like, don't we just eat like the same eight to 10 meals every single week anyways. And so it's really just like figuring out, okay, which of the portions look like in those. And then that can be like the easiest way to break through. But yeah, I mean, the most successful people and not just their physiques, like if you look at the top physique athletes or the top athletes, like they're they're boring, like it's really boring. Like they just do like a lot of boring stuff for a really long time. It's just they outlast everyone else that gets, you know, kind of sidetracked or shiny object or this or that. Everyone wants to hop and find the latest and greatest. And it's like, well, you know, that's not really going to work. That's not what it is. And I feel like that's like with the business, too. It's the same thing. It's like, you know, the boring stuff works just kind of like going in and out. I call it chopping wood, you know, just like repetition. But yeah, I mean, it should feel boring. Like if it feels boring for you, that is a good thing.
Adrienne Youdim
It's like not chasing the sexy again, right?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, 100%.
Adrienne Youdim
Don't chase the sexy people.
Dylan A. Conrad
Stop chasing the sexy. It's like your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend that you just kept chasing and chasing and chasing. Nothing good came out of that. It's the same thing with your fitness and your nutrition. There is no new thing. The basic stuff that's been here for ages, it still works and it's going to still work. It's just like, okay, everyone wants to be like keto or don't need to do hit or there's this new workout X, Y, and Z. And have you heard of this? It's like, yeah, I have, but you know, the basics, basics, just keep it simple.
Adrienne Youdim
Can you tell me what your thoughts are on like rest days? Like what's the, what's the science behind it? Is it necessary? How much?
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, because if you look at it like your results don't come during an exercise session, they become they come between the exercise session. So if you're like if your body is not recovering and repairing itself, your results aren't going to be good at all. So that includes like, lack of sleep and recovery and rest days are so dependent, you know, you could have someone stress comes in all forms, workouts, stress, you know, eating a calorie deficit is a stressor, you know, relationships are stress, your work is a stress. So like, if we have all this quantitative stress kind of coming from all angles, and it's very, very intense. Now our body is not going to recover that well, especially if we're not sleeping on top of that. So the recovery is so important. And those rest days are so important, because that's when your results happen, right. And so, you know, it doesn't have to be like, you're just sitting on a couch all day, you can go on, you know, depending on what your workouts look like, if you're someone who works out and does classes and you're more active and all that stuff. You can go on like a hike, you know, like get your heart rate up that way or do yoga class or that can be an active rest or go for a long walk. Um, but yeah, I would say like at least at least one day, if, if not, you know, two, two to three would be ideal. And if you don't need those rest days, you probably need to like look at your, your workout routine and adjust it. Cause you probably aren't just going intensely enough to where you're, you're doing a stimulus and you don't have to adaptation.
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah, so it sounds like more intensity in terms of, you know, I didn't hear, not necessarily in like heaviness, and we are talking about strength right now, and this is not, it's not exclusively strength training, but lighter weights, but more reps, more intensity, burnout when you're, so if you're in it, if you're exercising, like don't be ho-hum, you know, like get yourself to a higher intensity, but then take the rest and recovery you know, one to three days, I'm hearing you say, and it could be one of those days could be an active recovery, like a high.
Dylan A. Conrad
Exactly. And the intensity can be in all forms. Like, yeah, I'm not just talking about, I'm actually not talking at all about strength intensity. But yeah, that could be one component. But it can also be like, you know, your rate of perceived exertion, like how hard you feel like you are pushing yourself for the exercise. And for the whole workout, you know, it could be like, your intensity on your car, there's a lot of factors that come in. But what intensity kind of comes down to is the RPE scale, the rate of perceived exertion, which I think is actually 020. So it's how hard do you feel like you're pushing yourself? 20 being like, oh my God, you know, there's like a Freddy Krueger chasing me. It's like a 20 out of 20 and then zero being like, I'm not. I'm asleep. Yeah. Right. Um, yeah, if you were born after what, like 19 or before 1982, like you get that reference, but, um, yeah, so I think intensity comes in all, all different forms and it doesn't have to be strength. A lot of times it's like, you know, more reps and more, you know, maybe less rest periods. Um, there's a lot of variables you can include in your workouts, um, duration, intensity, how often you're doing it, frequency that you can manipulate to increase the intensity of your actual workouts.
Adrienne Youdim
And we know, you know, like, I'm, I'm thinking about like, I'm thinking back to like, when I was in high school, you know, like, I had an LA fitness, or I think it was LA women membership. And, you know, I was eating like, those la USD, like six inch chocolate chip cookies that came in the wax paper. It was so buttery that like the so good through I mean, God, through the wax and onto my hands. And so I would eat one of those things every day. Holy cow, that probably was like, I don't know, 56700 calories. And then I would go to LA Fitness and I would like stroll on the treadmill. And then I would wonder why it was not burning off that cookie. And so, you know, like we get these trackers and we want all of these devices to tell us how we're doing. But the truth is, we know if we're like, You're able to have the power bar while you're on the treadmill, then your exercise is probably not justifying the power bar. Like, we just need to be honest. It's not about shaming ourselves. It's just a matter of being honest with ourselves. Like, what are you really doing here? Like, be honest.
Dylan A. Conrad
Couldn't agree more. You know, I think like we we're just kind of going through the motions and we use all these like we're like, I don't know. I don't you know, a lot of my clients wear a whoop or a garment or this or that to kind of measure. Like, I don't need one of those. And most of you guys listening to this, like, you don't need that to. I can't curse on here, but let someone someone know, like, you know how bad you slept. you know, you know, whether you push yourself hard during that workout, like, you know, whether you might like you've had a cookie every single day. And then we're on the treadmill and not seeing results like you can see like, oh, cookie and easy on the treadmill. Okay, that doesn't equal results. So you can change that, like, we kind of know what we're doing. It's just the actual accountability a lot of times of actually doing it. I'm sure you kind of feel like probably that's a lot of your job is just like keeping people accountable, right? It's just like,
Adrienne Youdim
It's about, yeah, it's about being, I mean, both, again, this is both not shaming, not feeling guilty, not feeling bad. because that takes your bandwidth and energy away from the accountability. Like, you know, meet yourself where you're at. I was addicted to those dang cookies. It is what it is. And but at the same time, I have to be honest with myself, you know, and so I, I feel like if we can do that, then that's really the place to be to be honest and kind. So I know that you're a great resource and you do this virtually. So anyone listening anywhere across the country or even we have listeners in Australia, we have listeners in the Middle East. So where can people find you if they are interested in learning more and working with you?
Dylan A. Conrad
yeah well first of all everyone in the middle east and in australia i'm really sorry for just putting like well you know we're in america like i kept saying that i was like okay i probably should have asked adrian what the breakdown
Adrienne Youdim
But the, but the guidance is universal, so.
Dylan A. Conrad
It's all the same. Oh, 100%. But yeah, where you can find me, I'm on Instagram, Dylan A. Conrad. That's probably where I'm most active, at Dylan, like Bob Dylan, D-Y-L-A-N-A, Conrad. I'm sure Adrian will put it in the show notes.
Adrienne Youdim
We will put it in the show notes.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. And then the other place I'm most active is actually LinkedIn. Yeah, LinkedIn, just Dylan A. Conrad, same thing. But yeah, that's probably the best two places. I also have a podcast. Adrian was on it. Yeah.
Adrienne Youdim
I forgot about that.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah. About a year ago. Yes, yes, yes. Metabolic AF. So yeah, if you want to listen to that. A lot of good resources on there. Talk about a lot of stuff.
Adrienne Youdim
That's amazing. Well, we will definitely put it all in the show notes. I really appreciate you being here. I encourage all of our listeners if you found this valuable as valuable as I did, I really took some some tips away from our conversation. Please share it with somebody that you love. and head back over and review the podcast because that just makes it more reachable and listenable. So thank you, Dylan. Thanks for being here.
Dylan A. Conrad
Yeah, you're very welcome. Thank you so much. And if you're listening to this, you're like, wow, this is a lot of information. I just want it all done for me. Let me know and I will do it for you.
Adrienne Youdim
Yeah, love that. Thanks again.