The Livy Method Podcast - Exercise and Weight Loss with Andrew Blakey - Spring 2025

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

In this episode, Gina and fitness expert Andrew Blakey are breaking down the real truth about exercise and weight loss. They're challenging old-school beliefs and helping listeners redefine what movement looks like. From understanding that workouts shouldn’t be about earning food or burning calories, to recognizing the signs you might be overdoing it—this chat is full of aha moments. Andrew shares how your weight loss isn’t dependent on exercise and why focusing on strength over sweat is key. It’s about finding movement that fits your life and actually feels good—whether that’s walking, stretching, or lifting weights. Plus, a reminder that it’s okay to let movement be fun again. This is the mindset shift you didn’t know you needed.Where to find Andrew:Instagram: @iamandrewblakeyPodcast: The Aging GraceYou can find the full video hosted at: www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2025To learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livi and welcome to the Livi Method Podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 Day Weight Loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews, and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the Morning Live? Want to relisten to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place.

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Today we are talking exercise and weight loss with fitness and aging expert, Andrew Blakey. Hi, good morning. Hey, hey, good morning. How are we? We're feeling good. We're feeling tired with the heat, which I'm sure is normal. I'm feeling motivated. I did go to the gym last night, but then I was just like, oh my gosh, like, what am I? And it was dead. There was no one there. Normally I can't find a parking spot. Nobody was there. Of course, I felt great that I went, but you know, at the same time, it was very difficult.

Is that just, is this what we can expect in the heat? You know what, this weather, I mean, when we talk about heat, I mean, this is more than just heat. This is, this is being absurd. This has been absolutely absurd. I remember yesterday, I was driving between sessions and I mean, it's so hot where it's like you turn on the AC in the car and it's still not really enough to make you feel cool.

So I mean, yeah, I think it's pretty normal to feel just drained and I mean, it takes a lot out of you, right? I mean, I feel like we're just sweating all day long and you get home to your AC and you just sit on the couch and you're like, ah. Right. And I should give people some context because we are worldwide at this point. So where we live in Ontario, they're having a heat wave. Tony's brother, my husband's brother, lives out in Edmonton and it was like six degrees yesterday. So not everyone is experiencing

the same thing. Okay. Let's get into talk about weight loss and exercise. What is, what's the conversation for you that everyone wants to have when they are trying to lose weight and they think exercise is either the answer or a major part of that? You know, I think that that's a really, it's a really common misconception that, hey, the more exercise, the more I work out, the more I'm going to lose weight. But for me, with the people that I've worked with, I've always tried to reframe that a little bit in that nutrition, I mean, just like you talk about, nutrition is the way for weight loss, right? I mean, I think that exercise and working out, that gives you different benefits than

just weight loss. Sure, it'll help. You know, it's kind of like almost like an accessory to it a little bit. But strength training, resistance training, you know, lifting weight to whatever it is that we want to call it, that's going to give you the different benefits of more muscular, more you get your cardiovascular system working. It's got so many different benefits outside of weight loss. So, when it comes to weight loss itself, I would much rather have people focus on optimizing their nutrition and then adding weight training as a way to feel better,

move better and allow you to do all the things that you want to later in life. Well, I've never had anyone have to start exercising in order to lose weight. There are a lot of people that are very sedentary. We've had someone who had cerebral palsy, unable to get out of a wheelchair and was able to lose 60 pounds with the program. But man, it's a massive compliment and a huge benefit for a variety of reasons, that's for sure. What is your, if I was to come to you and say, okay, I'm doing this living method program. I'm looking to lose weight. I want to optimize here. What is the best exercise for me to do? What would you say?

Oh, the best exercise. So the way that I like to do things is I like to kind of have people exposed to as many different types of training as possible. I don't like to say, hey, just do this one thing or, you know, do this one other thing because ultimately, you know, the body adapts to it. It might get really, really good at doing this one exercise. There's all these different adaptations with our muscles, even our kind of like a neurological system and neuromuscular system where we adapt to make sure that we get really good at whatever it is that we're doing. So that's why I like to do variety with people where it's like you might do a squat and some

other exercises for a month or something. But I think it's really important to add some variety and change things up so that we don't get completely stuck on one thing. But when it comes to which exercise gives us, I think, the biggest benefit, we have to look at the everyday movements, things like squats, things like pulling, things like pushing. I think those are the ones that really translate over into everyday activities. I think a little bit more effectively than kind of all these fancy different things that you might see on like social media and Instagram and stuff. Well, I mean, I think that's the thing. That's the standard for exercise. Whenever you see

anyone showing exercise out there on social media, they're super fit. You have to lift really heavy. You have to take all these supplements. And I think, I think that we've lost touch of middle ground there. Like we're not all working out to be like a bodybuilder. We're just working out to be strong. And let's face it, some people are looking to lose weight. They are in a weight loss program.

So they wanna do exercises that can help them with that. But yeah, it's what you see outside and social media. There's so much. It's hard to find what works for you. Because there's so much. Especially someone who's not familiar with exercise. It's like, okay, go to YouTube, go look for fitness people. I mean, there's so many out there. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean,'s like, okay, go to YouTube, go look for fitness people. I mean, there's so many

out there. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, just like you said, there's so many different, you know, one day you see, oh, this is the type of workout you need to do. And then, you know, you're scrolling a little bit later on in the day while you're, you know, in bed just doing our doom scrolling that we all do. And you see another fitness trend and it's like, oh, maybe that's the one that I should do. And I think that, I think the fitness industry as a whole has kind of made it really complicated for the everyday person. I mean, there's so many people out there and probably even listening right now who they know they need to work out.

They know that they want to work out, but they're like, there's so much stuff out there. Where do I start? Right? And so I really like to focus on the fundamentals, focus on the stuff that might not be super sexy, but the stuff that works, right? And the stuff that is approachable for the everyday person who, again, like you said, they just want to be healthy, right? Do you know any apps, Andrew, that are good for people for exercise? Do you have any favorites? I

don't know if I have any favorites just because usually if somebody's coming to me, it's because they want something a little bit more custom. So I have an app that I use for all of my tracking and stuff. And I think it is available for anybody to download. It's called Trainerize. That's the one that I use for working with all my clients and stuff. And so if you know what kind of exercises you want to do in the gym and you're a little bit more self-guided, then that app is fantastic for tracking all your weights, tracking the

exercises you're doing. But in terms of an app that gives you workouts and stuff, I don't know if I have one that I can be like, yeah, I really love that one. But I'm sure there's people listening who they probably got their favorites. So I'm sure they'll put them in the comments and check those out. Yeah, we do have an exercise share page where people can add their favorites to that. Here's Annette, it becomes overwhelming searching for different types of exercises to do. It does. It does. And so I mean, I'll give out a little bit of a tidbit of advice right now actually. And so whenever somebody is getting started with working out, I always

like them to get started with full body workouts. I find that that's just the best way to spread out the work so you're not, you know, kicking the crap out of one muscle all in one day. And so when it comes to a full body routine, there's usually about six different movements that you want in that workout to give you a good quality full body workout. So those would be a horizontal push. So pushing in front of you, a horizontal pull where you're pulling towards you. Okay. A vertical push where you're pushing overhead, a vertical pull where you're pulling towards you from overhead, a squat, and then something like a, like a, what we call kind of

like a hip hinge pattern, which would be like a folding. So kind of like you're standing and like, and folding and coming back up. Exactly. Perfect. You got it. Exactly. So your squat. And so if you put those six patterns together, you've already got yourself a pretty good quality full body workout that you can do. Okay. What about people whenever we bring up squats, because we think it's the most important exercise to do, because it's just so useful for walking upstairs, getting off the toilet, getting down, getting up.

What about people with mobility issues and they have knee issues, they can't do full squats? What's your advice to people there? I would say that the body is a very intelligent thing. It tells us when we're in pain, it tells us when there's something not quite right. And so when it comes to working out with pain, I always, you know, we don't push through it. We listen to our bodies. For every exercise that causes you pain, there's probably dozens of other ones that you might be able to replace it with. For example, a lot of the people that I work with, because I do work with a group that is over 40, a lot of them have the everyday things like knee pain or they struggle going up and down stairs or the other

infamous one which is low back pain. When it comes to kind of the lower body stuff like knee issues and stuff, a lot of times even just changing where your foot placement is, sometimes that can have a really big effect on whether you're able to do it or not. For example, a lot of times people with knee arthritis, sometimes if they go wide or apart with their feet and point them out, that can make it feel a little bit better on their knees, right? And just because, you know, again, people say, oh, you need to go, you know, butt to grass. That's not the word that they use, but you have to go super, super

deep with your squats. That doesn't mean that if you're having pain, that that's what you should be doing. And even just, you know just doing the partial squat, if that means that doesn't cause you pain, then that's a good thing. We talk a lot about squats, but I think it's also really important for us to remember and for us to focus on that not everybody's able to do squats. Sometimes even stuff like being on the ground and doing glute bridges or finding something where you can work your legs in a little bit more of an accessible way for somebody is really, really beneficial.

I don't think that we need to get really, really hung up on the specifics of exactly what exercises and stuff like that. But I think it's really important, just like you kind of talk about with the nutrition stuff, that you're doing something and that you're Consistent with it right and these small changes really really add up Yeah, little bits add up day to day if you're just joining us

I am talking with fitness and aging expert Andrew Blake you were talking about exercise and weight loss someone asked Here Andrew. Is there such a thing as aging gracefully? Oh, there's absolutely a thing. There's absolutely aging gracefully. As you know, my podcast, it's called The Aging Grace. And I think that the really, really cool thing about aging and the reason why I love talking about aging so much. We talked about this years ago when you and I first had our first chat. It was what kind of got me into aging. You'll see where I'm going with this in just a second. When I was growing up, my grandfather lived with us. He lived with us for 15 years of my life. He lived to be in his late 90s. I remember him always being active, always moving. He was

biking across town in Collingwood until he was 92 years old. Then I look at parents of my friends or my neighbors who were stuck. They either needed a walker or were in constant pain. That's kind of what really got me into aging was that how your quality of life looks like in your 80s and 90s is largely within your control. What you're doing is going to allow you to either age gracefully or have a little bit more struggles later in life. That's why I love aging stuff and why I think aging gracefully is something that should be on the forefront of all of our minds is because all the different little actions that we're doing now or in your 40s or in your 50s or even in your 60s is going to be

what's dictating what you're able to do later on. So yes, absolutely we can age gracefully. And that's the conversation, right? Like it's what I'm doing now in my 50s. That's going to help me when I get to my 90s, live my best life. And it's not about living a long life. It's about being able to live your life. I heard the other day, unfortunate news about someone that I had

worked with in the past who passed away. And I wasn't surprised, you know, since I had known this person, they didn't really take great care of themselves. And, you know, they talked about it in the time that I spent with them. Oh, I should get fit and I should do whatever. And they never did. And just time went by.

And, you know, that's, I think we all think, oh, I'm gonna, I'll do it. I'm gonna start it. And then we just never do. What's the roadblock there? Like when you work with people, obviously when they come to you, they're willing to do something. But why is it so hard for us to start an exercise routine, in your opinion?

I think one of the really challenging things is that until we have some sort of big health scare, a lot of times we can, I do it myself as well. We justify it by saying, you know what, I've got time. I've got time. You know, today I'm busy. Tomorrow I got this going on. You know, this weekend I'm going here. And so I think that, I think that it's very normal if somebody has been thinking that way where it's like, ah, you know, I know I need to do it, but you know, I haven't done it yet. I think that's very, very, very normal. But I think that it's really important for all of us, myself included, to take ownership about our health, right?

Nobody's going to make us do it. Nobody's going to pull you to the gym or nobody's going to convince you to get resistance bands at home or whatever it is. I think just like your work, when it comes to working and all of us going to our jobs, we're on time, we're there every single day, and we don't really even think twice about it. That's just the way it is. We all have to work. I think that it's really important for us to And I think that it's really important for us to kind of bring our mindset, that same mindset, to exercise where it's kind of like if you want to, you know, be out golfing in your 70s and 80s, if you want to be out hiking with your grandkids, if you want to, you know,

or the classic example we use, you know, if we want to carry our groceries up the stairs later in life, it's not a negotiable. You need to be exercising. You need to be moving your body. And I mean, ideally in a perfect world, also working out as well. There's endurance, there's your heart health, there's strength. You know, the problem with doing a diet, especially those restrictive diets where you're just eating less, exercising more, counting, weighing, measuring, not really concerned about the quality of your foods, you can end up losing a lot of muscle mass, especially with some of the new weight loss medications that are out there, as much as

40% of your muscle along with it. And that's really important because as we age, you're losing that muscle, you're going through menopause, you're losing that muscle because of stress, because of the sedentary lifestyle. That one happens when you consume your foods, your body breaks them down into glycogen, they store it in your liver, your muscle, and your fat. If you no longer have that muscle, so if you lose 40% of your muscle, guess where 40% of more fat is going to go? And that's where you start to get that really thick midsection.

There's a comment here. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Best exercise for a 52 year old. I'm 52. So I want to hear this one. Weights, yes. Weights, yes.

We get that. We have to do resistance training. How often and what about cardio? I would like to release 20 pounds and I've only lost four in my first program. Well, first of all, you got to check into why you're not losing more. Four loss in a healthy way is great, especially if you're coming in hot off of years of restrictive dieting. Is it inflammation? Is it food sensitivities, gut issues? Is it hormones? 52, I can talk on hormones,

but let's talk about the exercise. I mean, exercise is not going to make you lose weight per se, but it absolutely can make a difference. And can you just talk about why, Andrew, and answer that question? Weights, how much, how often, and cardio? Okay. So, in terms, so I know there wasn't a ton of context in terms of how much, if she's doing anything right now.

So I'll just, I'll answer it as if somebody is again, just getting into it. So, if somebody is just getting into working out, into resistance training, again, I use those words interchangeably, whether it's resistance training, whether it's weight training, whether it's, you know, interval training, not so much. Those are a little bit different. But when it comes to weight training itself, if somebody is just getting into it, I recommend starting with two full-bodied workouts a week. Again, we kind of talked a little bit about how to create a good quality full-body workout, you know, earlier on, maybe, you know, seven or eight

minutes ago or whatever. And so, starting with two full-body workouts a week is a really, really good way of easing yourself into it. I mean, one of the most common things that I see when people come to me and be like, hey, I want to start working out, but I want to start working out, you know, five days a week. I want to be doing something every single day. And a lot of the stuff that I talk about is about making this sustainable, making this something that you can stick with for the rest of your life. And so I found from my own experience that the way that I get people to stick with it is to start slow and then ramp them up, right?

You don't have to be doing two full body workouts for the rest of your life. If you're doing two full body workouts and in a month, you're like, you know what, I hit all my workouts. I got eight workouts done this month. You know what, I think I can try adding another day. Then that's how it becomes something that is approachable for your life.

It's something that doesn't feel like you're changing your entire life overnight. I think the real kind of goal with implementing working out and fitness into somebody's life is how do I actually make it a part of my life, right? A part of my life that I can stick to, right? That's one of the hardest parts. I mean, how many times – same thing with the people listening, how many times have you started a routine and then stopped? And then you start back up again, you're like,

okay, I'm gonna do yoga three days a week, I'm gonna do working out three days a week, I'm gonna, you know, this day I'm gonna do two workouts in that day, and then again, a couple months later, you're kind of back where you are right now where you're not doing anything again. And so I heard people where it's like, if that's their approach that they've taken in the past is going all in real quick and then

kind of fading off, maybe try something a little bit different. Try starting a little bit slower and building up as you build those habits, as you build your routine and you learn where that fits into your lifestyle and as you get going with it, because your experience and your journey with exercise is gonna change as you do. And I would go back and listen to that again, because I love that Julie asked this, right? Best exercise for 52 year old, weights yes, how much, how often,

cardio, I would like to release 20 pounds, only lost four in my first program. And then someone else has come in and said, check out Dr. Stacey Sims. So she's amazing. But she is also Jack. And she is not the everyday woman exercise. She'll tell you you need to take you need to eat 200 grams of protein. You need to take the creatine you need to be in the gym five days a week, you need to load those muscles up. Like that's that's our like she's very prominent in the menopause

hormonal, we got fat around our midsection conversation. But that's why we never get around to it. And I know I'm not knocking Stacey says she's amazing. But she's coming in at the gold standard, when we can't even go for a walk around like we can't make time for a walk around, like we can't make time for a walk around the block, yet we're gonna start doing, you know, five days a week, going to the gym. And you know what I'm saying?

Like that's the problem here, is that our gold standard people are coming in hot, this is what you should be doing. And there's no like, there's no start. Our problem is not doing our problem is starting. Yeah. And then building and like you just said, fit it into your life. Yeah. And I think you bring up a good point. Like same thing, I've listened to a lot of Dr. Stacey Sims stuff, especially one of her episodes not long ago with, I think it was

with Mel Robbins, I believe it was. Do you listen to that episode? I didn't, but I like her and I like Mel. Yeah. Yeah. And so that, I really love a lot of the stuff she says. I think she brings a lot of knowledge to people in a way that is digestible in that, and it's very easy to listen to. It's very entertaining to listen to as well. But just kind of similar to what you're saying where it's like, the standard is so high that I think that it's really important for people to understand that while that might be one judge of success is five days a week going hard with it all the time, even same thing if you're not going for a walk around the block or you haven't been

going for walks, adding that to your routine, that's a win, right? And so I think it's really important for people not to compare or to have their measure of success based on somebody who is, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ahead of them in their journey, right? We're all starting at different places. We all start at different places and just moving and just starting to really be intentional with your movement and your exercise and you're working out. That's a huge win and that's going to pay off in dividends down the road. Well, here's Gisele. I'm 67 and I have been sedentary mostly and have a pinched nerve on L5 and I'm wondering

where to start. Yeah, yeah. I think anybody who's going through injury stuff, it can be a really demotivating, you know, and again, I don't wanna speak for her, but I know that with the people I've worked with who are coming to me with injuries and stuff, I work a lot with people who have, you know, had different injuries and are kind of on their way back

kind of thing. And I know that it can be really, really hard to get started with exercise when you are in pain, right? And so for Giselle in particular, first off, I mean, thanks for the question. I think it's hard to be that vulnerable and to ask questions in front of everybody. So that's awesome to see that. But for Giselle in particular, I'd say, you know, if you're having a pinched nerve in your L5 and people who don't know what L5 is, that means lumbar, L means lumbar, which is kind of like your lower spine. So for her,

it's doing stuff like where she's seated, that might mean that that's better for her. So she is kind of locked in and not moving so much. So, I mean, you can do a lot of seated exercises. You can do, you know, banded curls. You can – you do a huge, huge variety of exercises seated. And so, I would say, focus on the things that you can do and not on the focus – not focus on the things that you can't do. And then when it comes to addressing that specific issue of the pinched nerve, that's where you want to make sure that you're, you know, going to see a physio, getting their take on it. And that's a separate thing. So I think it's really important to focus on things you can't do or that you can do

and then address that second part separately. Okay. I want to break it down. Cardio, weights, flexibility. So cardio is like getting working your heart, which of course is really important, but we don't want to – we don't think about that unless it's old cardio, burn the fat, burn the fat, burn the fat, burn the fat. Different types of cardio would be running, walking

up hills, biking, swimming. I don't know. I'm thinking like anything that's getting your heart rate up. Yeah. Okay. How how like what's the standard with like, at least 10 minutes, Anything that's getting your heart rate up. Yeah. OK. What's the standard with at least 10 minutes? Try to get your heart rate up. Go till you can't talk. What does it look like, let's say, starting out? And then how do you progress that forward?

Let's just break that down in the simplest ways for people. Yeah. OK, so we'll keep this very, very simple. Again, I want to be conscious that we're talking to such a wide variety of people here. So what I want to do is give people something that they can use that is applicable for where they're at. Yeah. And so one of the ways to do that is I would say, look, do a real audit of your life of

how much activity you're realistically getting right now. If walking for 10 minutes, by the end of it, you're drenched in sweat and your heart rate is going, then write down 10 minutes. That's what I did and I was good afterwards. Okay. Then next time, maybe go 12, and then 15 and 20 and work up. Ultimately, again, we don't want to be spending our entire days doing cardio and stuff, but if you're able to get up to that range of 30 to 60 minutes, and again, you can adjust that based on what you've got going on that day.

Typically with the people that, again, that I'm working with, I'll have them doing 30 minutes of some sort of cardio, whether it's a walk or a run. And again, this is whatever they like to do. I just want to make sure that they're intentional with getting movement into their days. So the days between our workouts, you know, 30 minutes of intentional movement and on the weekends, do a little bit longer of about an hour on one of the days. And so if somebody is starting out, I think it's really important for them to really understand what their body is capable of right now. And so again, that might mean that 15 minutes of walking and you're tired by the end of that,

then write that down and build that up. Or if somebody has been doing this for a little bit longer and is able to do running and stuff, then same thing. Run for 15 minutes and then go into the next day and maybe do 20 or 30 and just build that up. I mean, I personally, I don't really see much of a benefit with doing running for like, you know, over 45 minutes to an hour just because I think, I just think that, you know, you can run, at that point you can run and unless you're training for a marathon or something like that, then I think you're getting the benefits that you need to out of it

without it taking up your entire evening after work. Great. Someone's saying low impact exercises. I mean, cardio. In cardio, it's moving your body, right? And getting your heart rate up. So, you know, if you have limitations, low impact, that could just be walking, that could be swimming, that could be biking, you can pretty much make any exercise low impact.

It's about finding an exercise that you enjoy doing when it comes to moving your body. What about weights then? Like how heavy? There's a lot of talk about lifting less repetitions and going heavier weights. The standard back in my day was like 12 to 15 reps three times. What's the standard now? Has that changed? Yeah, I think it has changed in terms of lifting heavy. Again, we talked about it last week in kind of the menopause group there where we kind

of dove into this question. And so for the people that are in this group here, we'll kind of go over it a little bit more here. And so when it comes to lifting heavy, yes, we do want to lift heavy. But what does heavy mean? Right? And I think the answer to that is, is it's relative to each person. Right?

I mean, what's heavy to me and what's heavy to you are going to feel different, even though I know you've been going to the gym, so you're probably lifting heavy there all the time. But what's heavy for you and what's heavy to me is gonna be different, just like what's heavy to you is gonna be different from what's heavy to somebody else, right? And so one of the ways that I like to gauge that, again, without knowing who's doing it

or anything like that, is using a scale of one to 10. 10, if you were to pick up a weight and you were to say, oh, that feels like a 10, not a 10 pound weight, but I mean a 10 in intensity, and you're like, this is really, really heavy, then you probably wouldn't want to start out with that if you're just getting into fitness, right? On the other hand, if it's like a one and you could, you know, lift it all day long, then that's probably not the right choice either just because you're not going to get the intensity needed to promote all those different positive adaptations that we're looking for. So when somebody is starting out, and then

I'll answer the repetition range in just a second, but when somebody is just starting out, I usually like to have them in an intensity range of around a 6 to 7. I find that if somebody is able to lift up a weight and they're like, oh, that feels like a 6 out of 10, then that's probably going to get them somewhere in that rep range of 10 to 15, kind of similar to what you mentioned with the 12 to 15. And so that's generally where I would like people is like a 6 to seven range until they build up their confidence, their form, their movement patterns until they've kind of built themselves up to be like, you know what? I think I can handle a little bit more. That's very normal

and I see that all the time where it's like somebody comes to me, you know, very first time working out. There's a gentleman a couple of weeks ago, this was his very, very first time working out. We were doing a dumbbell chest press with 10-pound weights. And he was like, oh, this is pretty heavy. And two weeks later, he's doubled that already. And it's like, don't go into working out expecting you're going to double all of your weights every two weeks. But the moral and kind of the lesson of this is that as you get involved with it, you're going to start to push yourself a little bit more.

You're going to become more confident in your movements and all of that good stuff. Then in terms of rep ranges for strength, just raw strength where it's like lifting as heavy as possible, generally that's in like a one to six rep range. But I also just want to make the caveat here is that, again, when you're starting out, I probably wouldn't be in that one to six rep range because it's so heavy where it's like, you probably don't have that form and technique that we talk about all the time where it's like, you need to have proper form, you need to have proper technique before you even start thinking about lifting super heavy weight. There's just too many things that could go wrong. There's too many injuries that could pop up for you to just throw yourself in there

and it'd be lifting a crazy heavyweight. Yeah. Everyone's talking about the injuries they have. It's such an investment for you to go and hire someone like Andrew, a personal trainer, if you want to go somewhere local or even just search up technique videos before you start looking at the weightlifting videos, you want to understand the importance of technique and if you are looking at videos, the person on that video should be talking a lot about proper technique where your shoulder should be the way you're standing. They should be guiding you through those exercises. That's how you know it's

a good person. It's a good go to in terms of exercising if they're talking a lot about technique. I just want to say and share because there's lots of women all of a sudden talking about that L5, L4. I have that and all I want to do is lie in bed but my chiro is like, you gotta move, you gotta move. So my exercise, I do go to the gym, I go once a week right now, I'm gonna try to bump that up to twice a week where I lift the heavy weight. So I do like leg presses, I do chest press, I do what are those called? Dr. Justin Marchegiani... Lat pulldowns and stuff. Dr. Julie Kwan... I used to be a personal trainer.

It's like, it's all gone out of my brain. It's like, Yeah, it's all nutrition. It's all nutrition. Yeah, it's different. That I mean, that's why, that's one of the reasons I got into the nutrition part is that everyone was, as a fitness trainer,

everyone's like, I want to lose weight. And I'm like, well, you can't just come in, beat yourself up for an hour and then go eat whatever you want. Or, you know, so I go to the gym once a week where I lift some heavy weights. Like I really, like I'm sore today. I feel it. And then I work at a couple of times at home, lighter weights.

And then I try to get out and walk now that it's swimming all swim. So I try to get out at least once a day. Sometimes it's 20 minutes. Sometimes it's an hour and a half. And then flexibility. I try my – I used to be able to do the splits. I used to be able to like sit and put my head down to my knees. Man, I can barely, barely move.

I don't have the flexibility that I had before. How important is flexibility before we go? Dr. Justin Marchegiani Oh, this is – yeah, this is a big one. Flexibility is a big one. I think that especially when we talk about aging. And again, when I say aging, I don't mean, when you're in your 70s and 80s, I mean like right now. Just to kind of reiterate that, it's like, we should always be thinking about our future

and what we're doing now. But in terms of flexibility, that's definitely one of the big ones that goes with age, right? That mobility and that flexibility. And I think flexibility, I mean, that is absolutely crucial when it comes to literally everything you do. I mean, right now, actually, I pulled my neck the other day. And so I don't have a ton of range in my neck right now.

And so even getting into the car, like I'm like bobbing my head trying to get into the car right now. And again, lucky for me, this is only like a one or two week thing. But this just goes to show if you lose flexibility or mobility in one part of your body, just again, because we're aging, we're not moving quite as much, we're not focusing on flexibility, it's going to affect you in your everyday things, whether it's getting in the car or whether it's getting in and out of bed or getting up and down off the couch, you need that flexibility so that you can move your body the way that it was intended to get whatever task it is that you're doing done.

Before you go, Andrew, can you share your favorite sort of transformation or someone that you've helped that you just stays in your mind and you're like, I wish everyone could understand that this is possible? Yeah, can I share too? There's two that automatically come to mind. I'm going to keep it really quick. There's a gentleman that I work with. One's a gentleman, one's a lady that I work with.

There's a gentleman, I worked with him for a really long time and then COVID happened. So we took a break and then near the end of it, he gave me a call back and he was saying, hey, I'm getting back fusion surgery. I'm a candidate for surgery. I need as much strength as I can get before I go into being under the knife essentially, right? And so we got him going. We did all this strength stuff in a safe way And then when he got his surgery

And I mean he was even having the same thing struggle struggling going up and down stairs Bending forward putting his shoes on like it was it was quite bad And then after after his surgery came to me was like, okay The physios have said that you know, I can start lifting weights again Very very very light and I mean we were teaching them how to relearn everyday things as simple as literally bending forward. Like we started from the ground up. It was a year, a year of working together before he was, you know, back to where he

was. And now, I mean, at 50 something years old, he's stronger now than he ever was in his 30s. So that was very, very rewarding. But one of the other ones that I would say, even though that first one is – it was such a change, there's one that's even more rewarding for me and it was a lady who – same thing. She had come to me and she had a lot of negative experiences with working out. Her exact words that I'm her last resort is what she told

me. She's like, I'm only doing this because you're my last resort. And fast forward, we got her into exercise. We got her consistent with it. Yeah, she lost some weight and stuff, which was great. But then six, eight months later, she was like, you know what? I think I can do this. And so, we dropped her and I down to once a week. She started doing more on her own. And then a you know, a couple months after that, I was like, hey, listen, listen, you know, listen, Cindy, is that what's her name? I was like, listen, you're good. You've got this, you know, keep checking in with me and stuff. But you don't need me anymore. Like, you know, go fly kind of thing, you know? So I both of those are very rewarding for me. And that's the stuff that I love doing.

It's, it can be life changing, and it's never too late, right? That's the thing. It's like, it's never too late. We can be like, oh, I don't know, if it's gonna make a difference. And then we just, it's just like feeling like shit, physically, mentally, not truly able to live your best life while you're here living your best life.

And a little goes a long way. Before we go today, what's sort of like, what are you seeing out there in the fitness world that you're just like, oh my gosh, we should just all like, no. Ignore it. Out there today in the fitness industry, I think same thing. You know what? It's the people out there who are using always statements or never statements. I know this is such a small thing for anybody else, but this really grinds my gears in that it's, I think, putting such an emphasis on one small little modality or one small little

change and giving the impression of people that this is the be all and end all. I think it's really – I don't want to necessarily say manipulative, but it's really difficult for, again, everyday people to understand kind of like this kind of stuff. And I don't mean understand what it is. I mean to understand what they should be focusing on because, again, there's just so many things and people that you trust that you think, you know, hey, this person is saying I should do this. I think it makes it, I just think it makes it really hard for people. I don't know. I feel like I didn't regulate that very well. No, you did. All or nothing. It's like same thing with

the dieting, like the fear mongering around food and just getting everything's in sound bites and there's no context to anything. Before we go parting words for people to be more motivated, especially over the summertime and be active or naturally more active or out and about, but to be intentional. What's your words of wisdom for us?

I know that's a loaded question. No, I love that question. I love that question. I would say be patient with yourself. Where different people that you're following or different people that you listen to, they're in a different place than you are now. They're teaching this stuff because they want you

to be able to do what they've done or to be able to move like they've done or to be able to move like they move. But also be patient with yourself in knowing that it took them time to get there. It's going to take you time to get going and to get started. But at the end of the day, we all need to take ownership about our own habits, our own things. And there might be people who are listening now who listened to our last one in the last, Libby Method group and being like, hey, I wanna get moving.

I wanna start working out. They listened to you and I chat last time, but they still haven't really done anything yet about it. Then I would say again, maybe this is the universe, saying, hey, it's time to get going. And it doesn't have to be perfect, but you gotta do something. You gotta do something.

Well, I do know that some of our members like Nicole have come to see you. She says, I cannot recommend working with Andrew Moore. He takes all my ailments into consideration when formulating my punishment. Love Nicole. She says, I need to work out. She's hilarious.

She's hilarious. All right, speaking of, if someone does wanna reach out to you, Andrew, where can they follow you? I know you're on Instagram at IamAndrewBlakey. That's B-L-A-K-E-Y. Is that the best place for people to reach out? Yeah, that's the best place on there. Same thing, you know, if anybody has a question about exercise or about fitness, you know,

don't hesitate to ask it. I love answering all these questions. I love making videos answering these questions. Instagram would be the best place. I don't know, can I mention my master class thing? No, yeah, absolutely. Well, Andrew's going to join us. I don't know if you know yet.

I've talked to you about this. I've alluded to it. Andrew's going to come join us in our summer club over the summer, but he's also offering his own masterclass. And when is that? So it's this Sunday at 8.30. Yeah, this Sunday, nice long weekend. So it's this Sunday at- In the morning or in the evening?

In the morning. In the morning. But there will also be the recording as well if you don't wanna wake up at 8.15 for the 8.30 recording. But it's basically going in depth on all the stuff that we talked about today of how to create your own workout, how to structure your routine. It's really for the people that want to get up and going but don't know where to start. It's going to be pretty in depth. So, bring your pens and notebooks or notepads or I don't know, iPads, I don't know, whatever you got, but I'm really, really looking forward to it.

Okay. So that's this Sunday, 830 in the morning, go to blakiebreakthrough.com slash masterclass. It's on the screen. For those of you listening, well, for those of you listening, it's on the screen. You can't see it. That's blakiebreak breakthrough.com slash masterclass. You also have to check out his amazing podcast called Aging Grace. Thank you. I mean, it's we're kind of sort of winding down. We're not, we still have like three and a half weeks left, but I know I'm

going to see you in the summer. So I'll see, I'll say, see you later. Yeah, that's great. I'll see you later. That was awesome. Thank you, Gina. Always a pleasure. Thanks everyone who joined us live or listening after the fact. I know you got some good tidbits and takeaways. So have a great rest of your day. Thanks, Andrew. Thank you, Gina.