Habits and Hustle - Episode 472: Zarina Del Mar: Why Your Body Weight is Better Than Heavy Weights (Movement Over Muscle)

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

What if everything you've been told about getting stronger is backwards? Former lawyer turned movement expert Zarina Del Mar joins me on the Habits and Hustle podcast to share how her journey from exercise addiction to mindful movement transformed not just her body, but her entire approach to fitness and wellbeing. We dive into why women are over-training their lower bodies while neglecting their upper bodies, the real science behind building a strong core (spoiler: it's not crunches), and why her 5-minute movement flows can be more challenging than hour-long gym sessions. Zarina also shares her research with subscribers from 55+ countries and reveals why breathing and pelvis mobility are the foundation of true core strength. Zarina Del Mar is a fitness personality who transitioned from practicing law to teaching body awareness and sustainable movement practices to women worldwide. What we discuss: Progressive Overload Without Destroying Your Joints Why Sprinting Isn't Realistic for Most 45+ Women 5-Minute Movement Flows vs Hour-Long Gym Sessions Why Bodyweight Can Be Harder Than Heavy Weights The Upper Body Neglect Epidemic Among Women Why Pilates Is Overrated for Real Results Why Crunches Are the Biggest Fitness Waste of Time Thank you to our sponsor: Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off.  David: Buy 4, get the 5th free at davidprotein.com/habitsandhustle. Find more from Zarina Del Mar: Website: https://www.whateva.club/  Instagram: @zarina_del_mar_world Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements

Hi, guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Hey, friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor, Momentus. When your goal is health span, living better and longer, there are very few non-negotiables. One of them, quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high

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Just act now. Start today. Jen for 20% off. Live momentous.com. Now we're always hearing on social media, lift heavy, lift heavy, lift heavy. If someone's body is not prepared and prepped for lifting heavy, all you're going to get is injury, right? So you have to be somebody who you do have to be progressive, but don't think just because you're not doing a hundred, pounds of dead lifts that you're not getting any benefit by at least even doing 10 pounds or your

body weight. Your body weight can be actually harder sometimes than doing like actual free weight. Even hip hinge. Yeah, hip pinch. Yeah. If it is like, let's say, glued dominant. Yeah. You're not just putting your torso forward without feeling anything in your glutes. I like every work single leg, single leg is very, that's what I'm my favorite. Yeah, and we are making now, my team is making a research because we have subscribers and let's say students from more than 55 countries. Wow. Like we are presented in all over the world and one research team, they approached me and told

me that it's a huge thing because usually researchers are made within USA or within Europe and we have subscribers from all over the world, women from all over the world. And we are now making research, conduct a research, we're talking to them, we are asking them about their menopausal status, about their age, physical activity, et cetera, et cetera. And we are looking how my method, because they are my subscribers, they have purchased my programs, helps them with their physical activity, with their mental health, with all the problems they may have, because they're 40 plus, with their perimenopause status or even menopause. But what are you giving them?

What is your case? So because you were saying that, are you someone who believes in cardio? Because you're saying all the soft and fluid motions of feeling your body and all these things, movement, mobility. So what is your thing? Do you believe in cardio? Do you believe in running? Do you believe in? What's your take on cardio?

On cardio. So now many scientists and longevity experts, telling us that we need to do these interval sprint training. By the way, intervals have been around forever. Yeah. A kit training, by the way, has been around forever. Yeah, yeah. But now they are telling that, so you need to make heavy lifting two times per week

and sprints like two, three times per week, and you'll be fine. Maybe you don't need this long run. If you're in a perimenopause, you don't need this long run. for 30 minutes or even longer. Just sprint. What they say is like what they say for paramedopause or metapause is sprint and do heavy weight, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Do you know how many people if, if that I know, who are let's say 45 or 50 can I can't even imagine them doing a sprint? The same for me. I was making view to a max test. Yeah. And I was like a little above average and I was wondering how so I'm training. And that's you.

And that's me. And then I look at my community, I think about my mom, who is 65, like how she can. My mom's not, my mom's 80. She's not sprinting, okay? There's not a chance. To me, a lot of this stuff is like, there's always something that people say and then people are like protein. Unless you're eating 5,000 grams of protein a day, you know, you might as well be eating

zero grams of protein. Like there's always these like crazy, like, you know, flut. of information, like eat so much protein and you've got to wear a weighted vest and you've got to do this. Like a lot of the stuff is like, do it. If you don't like it, number one, you're never going to do it. And also, whatever happened in common sense, right? Like, whatever happened to eating like a moderate meal, like having a piece of chicken and some salad and some... And feel fullness and feel comfortable. So about cardio. Now I'm walking or running every morning, but it's my soul food.

Yes, for your mental health. For my mental health, I want to be alone, and I live by the ocean. Finally, I'm 39 years old. I live by the ocean. I like this morning 5.30 or 6 a.m. time for myself. How long are you running for or walking? Just 30, 40 minutes maximum, because I need to come back to prepare breakfast and all the stuff. Yeah, we have obligations, we have kids. And I don't think about burning calories and making certain

amount of steps. I'm just walking or running. Then I'm coming back. I'm doing my movement stuff. I really have a lot of videos. I'm recording myself five minutes, literally five minutes, and I'm done because I'm doing it very precisely without any breaks between my moves. So I'm making a movement, like a movement flow movement sequences for five minutes in a row, and it is really hard. What kind of movement is? I'm sorry, don't hate me. You didn't try it. I didn't try it because I don't, so is it more like a yoga flow? Like, what are you doing? It may look, it may look like a yoga or Pilates or martial arts. Let's say I'm blending because I have martial arts experience, dance experience.

I have never tried professionally yoga, but of course I have tried it during the course of my life. So I'm just blending and it becomes a movement stuff. Like you're working with the weight of your body. You're, for example, you start from plank position. You have three points of support. Then you shift to the next position. You're making push-ups. Then you're, I don't know, coming into deep squat.

Then you're stretching your spine. You make rotations with your thoracic spine. You're using your arm line to just extend your. chest. So it may look even like a dance. And that's what I'm doing during five minutes or a little bit more. And the same stuff I'm doing before I'm going to bed. It really helps with your mobility, with every joint in my body. So I don't feel any pain, any stiffness. And what I've noticed, when I wake up, again, I need to prepare my joints for my like everyday routine because I don't know about you, but in the morning, I'm not as flexible as I'm flexible during the day. That's why I need my

movement routine. I need this fluidity in my spine. Like five years ago, I was not able to make spinal waves. So I was not able to move my thoracic spine than to feel how my thoracic spine engages my lumbar spine and the pelvis and all this stuff like fluidity in your spine and waves. I was not able to do it because I, was teach to keep this an atomical neutral position in which you're making dead leaves and sports, and that's it. But you need to move. You need to move your shoulder blades. You need to move every part of your body in three dimensions, not only linear movements. Right. Not just linear movements. Yeah. Yeah. And you've asked about yoga or Pilates.

As I have taken courses at LaBan, Rudolf Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York, I realized finally that, for example, Laban, he had his own system of description of movement. And yoga and Pilates is just the way you can describe and structure the movement. But yoga and Pilates, these types of physical activity doesn't have full rights on particular movements because all the movements are coming from our body. Right. So in many cases, I'm doing something. I don't know the name of these poses.

or physical forms, and someone may tell, oh, it's a yoga asana. Maybe. But you're doing so, wait, so you're doing a lot of movements. Like, it could be looking like yoga. It's like more flow of some kind. Are you not training then? Like Monday, Wednesday, I'm just making this up. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you're not doing upper body lifts or Tuesday, Thursday,

legs and you don't train like that anymore. It's all either you're walking the run in the morning and then you do these movement flow. Yeah, but my movement flows may include pistol scores, shrimp scorts. Right. It includes all these body weights, but you're not using, you're not using weights. I may use weights because I'm like on the level where I need to put more pressure on my joints. How long is each session?

So it may take 15, 20 minutes, like the session precisely to develop certain skill, because I'm still developing and I'm still finding out what I can grab from my body and how I can present movement for my people. Because I am, like I'm telling, my best book on anatomy and biomechanics is my body. And now the bodies of all of my subscribers, because we're making research, and I'm just looking at them, giving different tests to them, and we're analyzing what's happening, like, within a week or a month. And my main, like, my main lab is my own body. How it moves, what's happening with my shoulder joints. basis of many of my movements is gate biomechanics and motor development of a human during

first, let's say, two years of our life. Like crawling position, all the position when you're lying on your back and you're taking your limbs to the center, how you feel your center of gravity, how a human starts crawl, sit, and then walk. Right. So you're doing a lot of movements. Yeah. Not so much strength training as the literal form of. Yeah, as the classic. As the classic form of it. But as we get older, right, don't you think it's important for us to do resistant training in its real form for our lean muscle mask?

Like that way, what you're saying sounds great. Like I've told you, I can do pistol squads with dumbbells in my hands. Right. But it's the next level. Most people can't even do a pistol squat. Yeah, yeah, with additional weights. So I add some weights. But the basis I'm providing is just deal with your.

own ways, understand how you're... Right, and as you get stronger. Yeah, you can add more. Of course, I do scores. I do like RDLs, like every girl. We love RDLs. Yes. I'm telling you, I think women are over-training their lower body.

And they're not training their upper body. It is cool when you feel your strength and you're training on like your legs or glues because you feel them. And upper body is so hard. Like, like, again, push-ups, pull-ups. They say I have very weak arms, and I'm telling them, pull-ups, it's not about arms. It's about your core. It's about your spine and your shoulder blades, how you control the position of your

scapula when you're making these pull-ups. I think you're making it even too complicated. I think women want to look good. I think that's the bottom line. That's why they're doing it. I agree. And they're doing what's like the easy thing, right? Yeah, they want easy.

They want easy. It's too hard to pull your body up. So they're like, ah, forget it. I'll just do another hip thrust. I could do that. Or I'll just do another squat. I can do that. But what's happening is their bodies now are, I believe, out of proportion, number one.

You're strong on one side, but you're not proportioned. So it doesn't even look good. So like if they want to look good, ladies, if you want to look good, start training your upper body because you will look better. Like, proportionally, like visually, right? Like you will get the body type that will, like, accentuate your bum and will make your waist look thin. and da-da-da-da-da-da. And, like, I don't think there's anything hotter than a girl who has, like, a strong upper body.

You can see a girl, and you can be like, or whatever. Well, now I'm talking about a girl. I'm like, I'll be like, you know what? Like, you can tell that they're fit because they have strong arms, strong back, a strong, you know, the biggest compliment people can give me is like, wow, you look really fit. Look at your arms. Look at your back, you know?

I'm just, I'm just saying, but like, wow, look at those glutes. I'm like, all right, whatever. Like, that's, like, an easy way to be fit, you know? That's where I'm telling my husband, like when someone tells me, I'm doing yoga, Pilates, like seven days per week, and then I'm doing, like, long distance running. Let's say, it's a lady, and I don't see any muscles in her upper body. I'm just wondering, what are you doing? Because even in yoga, you can build up upper body strength. I was just saying, yoga people who really do yoga seriously, like, truly, you have the best upper body.

They're sculpted. Yeah, like their arms. Yeah. Their shoulders. Super fun. And back. And back. Because they're doing so many push-ups.

Yeah. They're doing so much of those cobras. Like, it's so hard. And handstands. And handsstands. Yeah. Handstands. I'm in love with handstands.

And only like two years ago, I realized it's not about strength. It's about balance. Yeah. It's about alignment and lack of fear because I was very. That's fine. I can't do. I'm scared. Yeah, yeah.

But now I'm scared. But now I'm scared. doing it not perfectly, but I'm doing it, and I'm not scared because I feel, again, the strength in my upper body helped me. But in general, it's all about balance. Yeah, I think so too. The other thing is, you know, Pilates is like the number one exercise, the number one fitness craze of 2025. I think it's slightly overrated, to be honest. You have to do a lot of Pilates to get a result, in my opinion. You could be spending a fortune. and really don't really get much result. That's my opinion. I believe that you also need to

come, like, do something with it. But like, I think that a lot of Pilates women gravitate to because they don't want to, they want to get a strong core, which it could be good for, right? In your opinion, what is the best way to get a strong core? Do you think it's Pilates? Do you think it's something else? I have programmed 3D core. So the best way to feel, to get a strong core is, first of all, to work on your breath, to understand how you breathe, to get connected with your rib cage and your pelvis. It really helps.

I am for nasal breathing. Now I am running, nasal breathing. I am running. I am walking. and I'm doing all my movement stop, and I breathe only through my nose. My mouth is closed. And it really helps to feel the capacity in your lungs, to feel your rip cage, and to feel the whole abdominal area, it really helps with your core muscles.

Pallus mobility, breathing, like breathing techniques that will help you to engage your rip cage together with your pelvis, your lower belly. And I like now technically physically. I like dynamic planks. I like push-ups, pull-ups. It's really great for your core. I never do crunches. I never do like Russian twists.

It's all about... Oh, Russian twist. Yeah. You don't like those? I don't feel it is necessary because I'm working on my butt. I'm working on my glute muscles. So as I've mentioned, I take as the base. the gate biomechanics.

So when you're standing on one leg, you're turning your pelvis, you're turning your torso, you are lengthening your posterior chain with, so you help with your arm, so you feel all the glues, you feel your core, your abdominal muscles, that's it. And you can grab extra weight. I never do crutches. I never have like separate sessions for my abdominal muscles. It's only dynamic planks and all these 3D stuff when you work on your gum. glutes on your spine and your core simultaneously.

I know. Crunches to me are the biggest waste of time. People are like, oh, to get a six-pack. And you see these program with these people. They're doing like 150 crunches. And that's the most biggest waste of time. To me, you get way better, way better core workout by doing a pull-up, by doing push-ups, exercises that are actually, like exercises that actually engage your core, not that are

specifically, basically focused on your core. But the engagement of your core depends on the position of your pelvis and your thoracic spine. So you need to understand how to put your pelvis and your thoracic spine, how to control the position of your lumbar spine, then that's it, and do everything you want. But if you're doing a pull-up, if you're doing a pull-up with a resistant band and you're pulling yourself up, you're squeezing and engaging your entire abdominal muscles. You're breathing. You're breathing, but you're squeezing. You're kind of like having to like brace yourself to lift up. You're working more of your core than if you're just sitting on a floor basically working your neck for 20 minutes, right? Because people are not even, when they're doing a crunch, they're actually just like working this part. You know, they're not. Yeah. And neck. And they don't feel. They're not, they're not even able to like bring their shoulder blades off of the mat. But once you feel your core, once you're breathing in the. appropriate way, then crunches. You will need just 10, 15 reps maximum.