The Livy Method Podcast - Meet Fitness and Aging Expert Andrew Blakey - Winter 2025

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

In this Guest Expert episode, we welcome personal trainer and aging specialist Andrew Blakey to talk about why it’s never too late to start moving your body. From the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle to the powerful combo of protein and movement for maintaining muscle mass, Andrew breaks down simple, effective strategies for staying strong at any age. He shares why hand strength is a surprising key to aging well, how to make time for exercise in a busy schedule, and why doing something—anything—is better than waiting for the perfect workout. Whether you're a beginner, dealing with chronic pain, or looking for practical home workout options like resistance bands, this conversation is packed with real, sustainable advice to help you move better, feel stronger, and embrace fitness as a lifelong habit. Lastly, tune in to hear his #1 exercise for any age!Where to find Andrew:Instagram: @iamandrewblakeyPodcast: The Aging GraceYou can find the full video hosted at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2025To learn more about The Livy Method or to sign up for the Spring 2025 Program, visit www.ginalivy.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.

This podcast is hosted on a cast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon music. This is an opportunity to become curious. To learn some things. How do we help you feel less overwhelmed so you can continue on your journey? Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process. Just be patient. Let's talk exercise and weight loss because forever people just thought they had to pound

the shit out of their bodies and exercise till they drop and eat very little. And as we know, that's not the case at all, but there is an absolute place for exercise beyond weight loss, really truly feeling your best and living your longest, healthiest life. And here to have this discussion with us today is a personal training specialist focusing on those over 40, which I find is really interesting. He's also the host of the podcast, The Aging Grace, that focuses on sustainable fitness

into your life over 40. Why? Okay, Andrew, first of all, hi, Andrew. Hello. Good to be here. Now, looking at you and for people who just listening to the podcast, you look like a young guy. You look like you'd be into training all the,

like the hot, sexy fitness girls and the muscle guys. And I don't wanna obviously like, pigeonhole you and what's that word where you just assume people are, I don't know. But what's your passion for this? Well, you know what? It's a topic and it's an area that I've always found really interesting.

And not just because aging is something that we all go through and that we're all gonna experience at some point in our life. But I find it a really interesting area because I think a lot of people think about chronic conditions and ailments and different issues that come up

as you go through the aging process as something that's just out of their control. And I think the really exciting thing about this topic is that there are so many different ways that we can modify our lifestyles in the present that's gonna help you in the future. And I remember when I was younger, I lived with my grandfather, me, my mom, my sister,

my grandpa, we all lived together. And my grandpa, I remember, he lived to be 98 years old, by the way. And even into his late 80s and early 90s, he was still out riding a bike all over town and walking everywhere. And then I compare that to other people in my life in their late 60s and early 70s, who are really suffering from different chronic conditions, issues, having to take all these different pills. And I realized that the choices that we make today, and the changes that we make today, are going to have a huge drastic impact on our life in the future. And that's why I think this area is so exciting. And why I'm so fired up to talk

about this today. Yeah, because we're hearing now, like, I don't know exactly what the saying is, so forgive me, but like, the disease and the issues that we're experiencing in our 70s, for example, started in our 60s, what we're experiencing our 60s started in our 50s or whatever, like, it's, it's, there's, it's never too late, though, right? or whatever. It's never too late though, right? Absolutely, absolutely. And I think that that's one of the, I would say, the most exciting things about how we can implement fitness

into our lives is that it really is a snowball effect. You might start small, but you gradually kind of build up momentum and eventually you've got an entire new routine than you had five, 10, 15 years ago. And those little changes that we're making today, they snowball into a huge, great, big, larger impact on our health, figuratively tomorrow. Yeah.

What's the most exciting thing you think is happening with exercise in terms of the, I don't wanna even call us the aging population. How do you refer to us? How do you refer to those of us who are over, let's say 40? And of course this conversation is relevant to anybody, but how do you refer to us aging older people? I just go by the age.

I say, you know, over 40 or over 50. I know that it's rude to ask a woman her age, so I won't say, you know, women over 40 or something, but I just refer to people by their age. And I think that's the best way of going about it. Well, I see Cathy's here. She piped up, she's 70, Deb is 71, Jan is 72 and has gained more mobility and less pain

during her first round on the Libby Method. Like that's amazing, right? So we're here to have a real conversation about exercise. I really wanna drive home the importance of it beyond weight amazing, right? So we're here to have a real conversation about exercise. I really wanna drive home the importance of it. Beyond weight loss, right? Beyond weight loss, what is the benefit for people? Well, I think there's a lot of different benefits. I mean, I think that we have got enough evidence

and enough studies being done now to show that exercise can really have a huge impact on not just weight loss, but also on the way that we go about doing our everyday activities, whether it is range of motion and mobility, if you're getting in and out of a car, or going up steps, or doing all these things that I think we sometimes take for granted. But we don't realize how important these movements that we do are until we're not able to do them anymore.

Yeah. Well, you know, we look at places and I don't know if people listening have heard about Blue Zones. So Blue Zones are areas of the world where people are living the longest. They're active, they are social, they are healthy, and they don't have gyms on every corners. They don't have health food stores and places to, you know, buy supplements, they're, they're drinking their glass of wine in the evening, but they're very mobile, they walk places, they are in the garden, they are quite active just by nature. And that's one of the things that I mean, in a lot of places in Europe, really, I remember

being there a few years ago and like you couldn't find a gym or a supplement store. Like it's not their way of life is being more active. And how detrimental is it? I say all the time, it's so detrimental to be sedentary, to sit at a desk like I do all day long, most days. How detrimental, like physically what have you seen in people's bodies in terms of like the repercussions of that? Yeah well I mean I think there's the old saying you know move it or you lose it right? Yeah is that true?

I think that that's a really good depiction of what happens with our body is and just like how our bodies adapt and give us positive benefits when we're moving and we're exercising and we're working out, it also gives us negative effects when we're sitting still and and kind of living a little bit more of a sedentary lifestyle, right? I mean, some of the things that can increase are, you know, everything from an increased risk of, you know, cardiovascular disease to loss of muscle mass, which I mean, that's a really, really big one, which a lot of us, we call it sarcopenia, which I know that that word kind of sounds

a little bit scary. But basically what that just means is age-related muscle loss. And for people who are like, okay, well, you know what, why does that matter? Well, it's when we're losing muscle mass. And depending on what study you look at, some people will say that it's 3% per decade of your muscle mass you lose. There's some studies that say upwards of 8%. And that's really, really crucial when it comes to planning your future and planning what your quality of life looks like in the future.

Because if you're losing 3% to 8% of your muscle mass per decade, well, muscle isn't just here to make us look good. Muscle is here to help us, you know, get in and out of a chair, walk around the block or go take a dog for a walk. It's so crucial for everything that we do. And when we're sedentary and we're not moving, our bodies respond accordingly, just like if we were to do, you know, good positive habits, the same thing happens with bodies respond accordingly, just like if we were to do good positive habits. The same thing happens with, I don't want to call a sedentary lifestyle a negative habit, but it certainly isn't helping us when it comes to our long-term vision for our life. So when we get older, we're naturally losing more muscle mass. And then you combine that

on top of anyone who has a history of dieting in that star deprivation, starvation way where you're not just losing fat, you're also losing muscle on top of that. So you take a history of dieting, you add in aging, God forbid we add on menopause on top of that. And this is where that's, uh, everyone is talking about protein, protein, protein, protein. And I'm having women, especially in my menopause group, saying like, I have to overeat in order to get the amount of protein that I need. And as you know, with the Living Method, we're, we're, we're spreading our protein. We're getting, we're getting, we're eating good nutrient rich foods. We're focusing on getting that protein in. How important

is it? And why, why can you, can you tell people why it's important? Because this week we are actually separating our portions into two and we're consuming protein first, carb second, leafy greens, healthy fats can go the other way to help people understand how protein just hits different. It feeds into your satiety hormones. It also gives you energy in a different way from carbohydrates. But how important is protein for us as we get older? I mean, especially as we get older, I think protein is, I can't think that, I don't think that we can overstate the importance of it

because I love that approach of separating it between the, doing the protein first and then the carbs and stuff after. I love that. But protein is massively important because it helps us to preserve our muscle mass as well. And when we're talking about sarcopenia, we wanna helps us to preserve our muscle mass as well. And when we're talking about sarcopenia, we want to be able to preserve our muscle mass in any way that we can. And combining eating an increased amount of protein, whatever that number is for somebody, while also combining that with fitness training, and you've got yourself a really potent strategy

that's going to help you to maintain that muscle mass and even increase your muscle mass as you go through the workouts and all these different habits that you're implementing into your life. You know, it's occurred to me, someone who's carried extra weight, how would they know that they've had muscle loss? Like it's one thing for me to tell them, if you've done diets, if you're aging, if you're in menopause, but what would be the signs of that? So that's a really interesting question because I think depending on who you ask,

you're gonna get different answers. Now my own personal belief on it, there's ways where we can dive deep into figuring out how much muscle somebody has with different scans, such as a DEXA scan, which is essentially just kind of like, it uses x-rays to kind of tell us the composition of our body. But there's

other ways of doing it that don't require you to go you know book a scan wherever you can get a dex scan. I mean one of the ways that is is reliable is going to the gym and you know doing your exercise and if you notice that your weight lifted is going down well there's other there's other factors that it could affect it like if you're tired or if we're not eating properly. But if this is something that's going on over time, where your weight lifted is decreasing, then there's probably a good chance that you're losing muscle somewhere in there as well. Now, what about hand strength? So hand strength is actually a really interesting one because hand strength is actually very,

there's a strong correlation between hand strength in people who are aging with their overall muscle strength as well. Because I mean, how often do you really see somebody who really can't, you know, squeeze a hand, but to be in, you know, good strong shape. I mean, on the other side, if you see somebody who can squeeze a hand quite hard, then they're probably same thing. They've got, you know, good strong shape. I mean, on the other side, if you see somebody who can squeeze a hand quite hard, then they're probably same thing. They've got, you know, a relatively strong body. And so I don't wanna say, well, if you've got a strong hand,

that means that you don't need to work out because you're already strong. But that's a really actually strong correlation between overall body strength and the strength of your hand, which is kind of a little bit of an interesting and cool topic. Okay, what is the conversation on exercise and aging? What is it?

In what sense? And like, if I was to say, you could pick one thing to talk about in relation to exercise and aging. What's the thing that you wanna get across to people? I would say that the biggest, I think this is more of a motivational message, more than the actual science behind it. But I would say that I think a lot of people look at exercise and fitness as the, that

it needs to be perfect. You need to, you know, have the perfect workout. You need to have all the, all the pieces lined up in a row in order to make progress. And that's simply not the case. I mean, a while back, seven or eight years ago, I was losing weight. I lost 40 pounds. And that was from just taking action and doing something. And when it comes to your workouts, it can be messy.

It doesn't have to be the perfect structure. While having some structure, your routine will essentially you know, essentially allow you to get, you know, I'll say better progress just because you've got some kind of method behind the madness. But when it comes to exercise, the biggest thing is just doing it. Same thing, I think there's enough science for us to now say that if you're only able to take, you know, 15 or 20 minutes to go for a walk during your lunch break, or there's actually a lady that I train and she's a big, big fan of you. She's been taking your program for a while. But what she does on her lunch break is she just

goes and she does the stairs in her building. And all these different things that we fit into our routine throughout a week, they all add up. And while I want to say, well, you know what, you need to be working out because that does give us other benefits. I think that the really critical piece and the critical message here is that you're doing something, no matter how messy it is, no matter how unorganized it looks,

just do something to move your body and make sure that we're not being sedentary. What's the biggest pain point that you think people have? Like what stops people, do you think, truly what stops people from exercising? I think the biggest pain point that I hear is I don't have time. That's a really big one, is I don't have time.

And I think it's important for us to talk a little bit about kind of some of the strategies to help people that don't necessarily have a lot of time in their week and some of the best strategies that I suggest for people aren't over they're not overly complicated they're relatively simple but it means that you have to do them so for example you know open up your calendar at the beginning of the week and see where you have time that you could fit in again you know a 15 minute walk or a 20 minute walk.

If you have a little bit more time, okay, well how can I fit in a 30, a 45 or 60 minute workout? Or on the weekend when I mean, I know people work on the weekends as well. But if you've got a little bit more time on the weekend, then you can book yourself into a fitness class or a group class or even workout at home. I think the options really are endless. But

I think that the big thing is scheduling that into your routine because just like how we don't miss, I want to say generally we don't miss doctor's appointments, I think that we need to think about exercise and fitness the same way where it is something that we need to make time for. Yeah, here's a comment from Cindy. She's 64. At 64, my doctor told me that I had a 20% likelihood of a cardiovascular incident within 10 years. He prescribed lifestyle changes,

diet, strength training, cardio, movement, walking, or other, and he prescribed a statin. I started working with a trainer in September. I joined Gina and you all on my 65th birthday, January 6th. I'm already out of that 20% category. No diabetes or pre-diabetes. My doctor, my trainer and Gina saved my life by providing a path that I can do that works, literally. Okay, first of all, I love hearing that.

Where do people start? I love that Cindy started with a personal trainer. So obviously, you know, people can go find a personal trainer. I wanna talk about where to find a personal trainer, what to look for. A lot of people can't afford, a lot of people are gonna go for a gym, maybe can't afford a personal trainer.

A lot of people can't afford a gym or a personal trainer. So where do they start? So can we get kind of work through three different categories for people? Yeah, I think that there's a lot to unpack here. And so I think that there's there's a lot to unpack here and so I think the first the first way of unpacking or the first part of that to talk about is let's talk about what a good structure to your routine might actually look like when it comes to workouts for somebody who's just getting into it and

I would say typically when somebody is just starting out with working out I recommend starting with two full-body workouts a week And there's a couple of different reasons why I recommend that. One is because, you know, a lot of people know that when you start working out, you might experience a little bit more soreness than, than when you're further along in your journey. Yes, because when we start, we do the one workout and they were like, fuck this shit. That's right. That's right. And so I think that one of the really big benefits of spreading your workouts into two full body workouts a week is that you're actually splitting up your training volume.

So that doesn't mean that if you're doing, and I'm gonna compare this to where if somebody was doing like an upper body and lower body split, where you're doing upper body one day and you're doing lower body another one. And so if you're doing that kind of split, then that is a lot of training volume and that's very intense on those muscles that you're working for your upper body for example,

in that day, which means that you could be in, you know, excruciating pain the next day. And I think that for a lot of people over 40, they're not looking for the bodybuilder look. They're looking at being strong, being healthy, and avoiding any sorts of diseases and ailments down the road. And so that's why I recommend two full body workouts a week is because it splits up the training volume, but also it gives you time between to rest. We know that recovery is very, very important because how else can you get stronger if you're

working out every single day? It's important to have those couple days in between. Can we just stop there for a second and talk about overtraining? Because I think sometimes people either don't exercise or when they do, they're overtraining and not understanding that their body does need rest. They just think more is more sometimes. So can we talk about the importance of actually taking that rest? Yeah.

Taking that rest is really, really important because when we're sleeping or when we've got those days where we're not working out, that's where your body is healing. It's regenerating all of the different micro trauma that we've done to our muscles, our tendons, and to our bones. And I think that a lot of people think that taking a day off

means that they have to be completely sedentary and not do anything. And that's not the case either, where you can have something which we call an active recovery day, which is essentially where you might work out one day and take a couple days off, but you can still go and do walking or biking or be outside, which is actually going to help you with your recovery. Because one of the big things about recovery is that an increase of blood flow to the area is going to bring all those different nutrients and all the different things that we need to effectively heal that muscle. So by doing

an active recovery day and taking a day off to rest, you're actually doing your body a huge, huge favor. Yeah, I want to talk about, I want to talk about about I love Lynn here, you have to make yourself a priority for exercise, you're worth it. It's worth the investment in your life. You're talking about your health. And you're talking about your wellness, you're talking about aging and being mobile, you don't just want to get old, you want to be able to live your life as you get older. I don't care if you're watching and listening to this when you're 20 years old, this this

this conversation is for you as well. So it is an investment, whether it's a financial investment or investment in your time, it's worth it. At some point, I like that saying, at some point you're going to have to pay, right? If you're not paying out of pocket for your trainer, eventually you're going to have to pay when it comes to your health and wellness. The benefit of personal trainer,

because I was a personal trainer for years is for someone who doesn't know anything about working out, it's great to go see a personal trainer. They can create a routine for you. I'm a big stickler on technique. Obviously, that's important. What other benefits are there to hiring a personal trainer? Well, there's a lot of them. I think that one of the big ones is, like you said, technique.

That is hugely important to make sure that somebody is staying safe in the gym. But one of the other things that's really important is for example if you're getting into working out and you're dealing with some sort of injury and that's keeping you from starting to work out then a personal trainer is really great if you go to them and you're like hey I've got this issue going on then they can teach you a way to train all the other muscles in a way that isn't going to further injure that injury, I guess, further, you know, exacerbate that injury. Yeah, make it worse. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you. And so I think that there's a lot of different benefits with having a trainer and not just that, but one of the big ones that I see when I'm working with people,

it's not necessarily that they that they need me. It's that it's that if I'm not there, then the workouts not getting done. And I think that that's really important to have that conversation with yourself. And just kind of be realistic with yourself. And to ask, you know, am I am I going to get this workout done? How long have I been pushing this off for? And if that means that you need to get a trainer to help kickstart that process and to get you going with it and to give you motivation, then I think that that is a really, really big benefit to you and your journey,

wherever you are with things. Yeah, cause you'll gain confidence. And once you're into exercise, you feel like, oh my God, I'm a rock star. This is amazing. You feel awesome. And then it's like, when you fall off, it's getting back up. Okay, let's talk about that middle part. Someone who's maybe signing up for a gym. What do

you think is the biggest issue there with people who maybe never been to a gym before or getting back to a gym you go there. There's a lot of people, you're waiting for equipment, you're not sure what to do. Like, what's your advice there for people? I would say that when you're looking at what gym to go to, I would encourage people to try a couple different spots before they sign up for one. When you go to the gym, you want a place that is comfortable for you, a place where you feel

at home in. And if you don't feel those feelings of positivity towards your gym, it's just another barrier that you're going to have to be overcoming every single time that you step foot in the gym. And so trying different places, trying different classes, I think that's the best way to figure out what somebody individually resonates with because somebody might be looking for a little bit more of a, you know, a hoo-hoo-rah-rah gym where everybody's pumping, you know, whatever, pumping each other up all the time. And somebody else might just be looking for a place where they don't have to wait for equipment, they can have their headphones in, they don't have to talk to people.

And just kind of exactly right and just kind of unplug from things. And so that's why I think it's really important to try a couple of different places, because what works for somebody isn't going to work for everybody. And so that's what I would say is my biggest advice when it comes to that. Let's take a minute to hear from our podcast sponsor today because this new year why not let audible expand your life by listening kind of like what you're doing right now. So you can explore audiobooks, podcasts, even exclusive audible originals that are no doubt going to inspire you, but

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They can help you reach the goals that you set for yourself and you can start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.ca. Great. What about people who don't want, can't afford a personal trainer or can't afford going to the gym and just don't want to. They don't want someone else telling them what to do or they don't want to go to a gym surrounded by people or don't have time to drive or maybe a gym is far away. What are their options? I know walking obviously is something that you can do. But when it comes to that resistance training, what if I don't have a big space in my home to put a whole gym set? I know there are options. I'm trying to think of them like the YouTube is full of amazing videos. What was your best advice there? So I think that there's a not necessarily a solution, but there's an option that I really,

really like that I think kind of touches on all those different issues, whether it's budget, whether it is not wanting to be in the gym, it is you know I'm just going to invent one whether you're traveling all the time for work and you can't sign up for one central gym location and that's that's resistance bands I love resistance bands I actually I don't know if you can see them but it's hiding behind my plant there I've got my resistance bands here because I I work out at home uh not all the time but if I'm at home and I've got 20 resistance bands here. Because I work out at home, not all the time, but if I'm at home and I've got 20 minutes and I just want to do some exercise, then I'll just throw those in.

And resistance bands are great because, one, they're relatively inexpensive. You can usually get a pretty decent set for between 20 to 40 dollars. The other thing that's really great about them is their versatility in that almost, I don't want to say every exercise that you can do with dumbbells, but a very, very wanna say every exercise that you can do with dumbbells,

but a very, very large percentage of exercise that you can do with dumbbells, you can also do with resistance bands. And the great thing about resistance bands is, you've got four or five bands in a set, and you can play around with how you arrange them to change your difficulty and ensure that you're progressing over time as well.

Okay. Trudy says, first of all, if you guys, if you guys can, I'm watching the comments section. If you guys any, have any questions for Andrew, I'm going to watch the comment section. So if you guys want to know, uh, have any questions, I'll ask him. Uh, Trudy says she buys so much exercise equipment and never uses it. That's also fair. That's also fair. The good thing is these don't take up a lot of room though.

I love the idea of bands. Can I hire someone like you and go to you and say, okay, like I'm investing this time with you, but I don't want to go to a gym. This is what I have. I have these bands. What videos should I do? Where should I start? Like I think everyone thinks that the higher personal trainer for like 50 sessions or whatever, but is it, can we go to trainers and say, can you just kind of create a program for me based on, on my needs? Yeah, I think that, um, it really depends on where you go. Um, I mean, for me, when I look at what my goal is with what it is that I'm doing, I want to empower people to be able to do this, you know, without me, I want to give them the knowledge. So if they're choosing to continue on with me, it's because they just

genuinely enjoy the sessions. But even, even then I know that I'm not going to work with somebody forever. And so my big goal is to teach people everything they need to know so that they're confident to continue on this journey on their own. And I mean, I've even had some people who have came to me and be like, Hey, listen, I want you to I want you to teach me to fish rather than, you know, hauling me a fish out of the water or whatever that whatever that saying is. I think I butchered it. But I think that that's a really valuable way of using a personal trainer is to ensure that you're learning all these key concepts. Because I know that when you're starting out with exercise, there's a lot to think about.

You know, keep your shoulder back, keep a flat back, brace your core, breathe, you know, yada, yada, yada. And so if you're just getting into the gym, it can be really, really hard for you to know what there is to focus on and especially when it's one of those things where it's you don't know what you don't know and you don't know what to ask because you're new, you're getting into it, right? You're a beginner. And so I think that it's really important that if you are going in that route

to just make that really clear to the trainer, hey, I wanna do four sessions with you, hey, I wanna do eight sessions with you, teach me. So that they do spend even more time with the teaching aspect. It might mean that the workout is a little bit easier because they are taking the time to explain key concepts to you, but long-term, it's going to give you the knowledge and all the different things that you need to feel confident in the gym

or in your workouts. It comes back down to that investment. Someone was asking about chronic pain. I can imagine someone who's constantly dealing with chronic pain. Where would they start? Yeah. who's constantly dealing with chronic pain? Like where would they start? Yeah, I mean, I think that that's one that I think a lot of people suffer from and that a lot of people keeps people from working out and doing exercise is that chronic pain. I mean, especially if you've got back pain or knee pain or whatever pain it is, going

out and moving your body and working out is one of the last things that you want to do. Right? And so I think that it's really important to go about it in the right way and in a safe way to ensure that you're not doing more damage than good. And so there's a couple of things that I like to suggest to people when they are starting their journey with exercise while dealing with chronic pain, because a lot of people have it. And so the first one is to go to the doctor, make sure that you've got clearance to make sure that you aren't gonna do more damage than good. And another really, really big strategy,

and if anybody's in this boat, get out a pen and paper because I'm gonna give you a couple of questions that you can take to your physio in order to get the answers you need. That's gonna make your workouts and your experience so much easier and so much less stressful. And the first question that you would ask a physio

is figure out exactly what muscle it is that's being affected. So that's really essential because that means that you can modify your workouts so that you're not doing more damage to that muscle. And then the second question would be what movements should you avoid? And that's a really good question to ask because now you know, okay, somebody, a physio might

say don't do overhead pressing. But that means that you can still do a horizontal press or pushing in front of you. Or on the other hand, if they say don't do a press where you're pressing overhead, well now you can feel confident in knowing that you can pull from overhead instead. And so that you can modify your workout to work all the different muscle groups without injuring that part of the body. And I do actually have a third one as well. And that's getting a plan or asking them

to give you some exercises so that you can fix or rehab that muscle that you are working. And when you have all of the answers to these questions, if you decide you wanna go to a personal trainer, then you can tell them what muscle it is affected and which movements to avoid and they can create a plan that's more custom to you or you can do it on your own. Because a lot of times when people think when they have chronic pain, obviously they're not feeling like moving, but they're afraid to move and they think they shouldn't move

when that's exactly the opposite. I remember when I was dealing with, I have a back thing that I have that happens every now and then. The problem is when I'm not moving. When I'm not moving is the problem. So again, those questions are what muscle is being affected? What movements should you avoid and ask for exercises to help? Okay, I love that.

What about something like AquaFit? AquaFit, my mom actually started doing AquaFit actually. She got a knee replacement. She had a tricompartmental osteoarthritis in her knee. And so she got a knee replacement done and so she's been doing AquaFit. I don't know if she's doing it now. She has done gone through the rehab process and strength and everything. But AquaFit is a great way to ensure that it's low impact, right?

So you're not, you know, impacting those joints super hard if you do have some sort of issue. And as well as if you're dealing with chronic pain, again, it's low impact. So it means that you're not putting as large of stresses or as large of stimulus on those problem areas. So I'm a big, big fan of aquafit. If that means that that's going to allow somebody to get movement and get that exercise in. So yeah, big fan of, of AquaFit. Um, if that means that that's going to allow somebody to get movement and, uh, and get that exercise in. So if you have a big fan of AquaFit actually. What's the biggest, what's the biggest mistake that people make when they start exercising? The biggest mistake I would say is going into it with the perspective that there's an end date. I think that that's a really, really big one, because I think that when it comes to working out and with exercise, it's not just a one month plan

or a three month plan. It is something that is for life. And I think that when you go into it with the perspective of this is for life, it allows you to approach your workouts in a different way. It means that you're much more keen to, you know, start slow and build up versus trying to hit it as hard as possible on day one, getting an injury and falling off the wagon. So it changes your mindset about how you approach your workouts.

So I was just getting sidetracked. I'm listening to Trudy. She's saying, now I've got that damn perimenopause shoulder pain. I had frozen shoulder. Frozen, yeah. Same. Let's talk about that menopause damn perimenopause shoulder pain. I had frozen shoulder. Frozen, yeah. Same. Let's talk about that perimenopause,

menopause, postmenopause, blowing up conversation. We're hearing that we need to have X amount of protein. Do you say a certain amount? What is your, how much protein do you think? I think that it depends on the individual because if you're somebody who is working out more, then you need slightly more protein. If you're somebody who isn't really working out

as much, you still need protein. It's still a very important, very important macronutrient for us to have. So if I believe the number is, I think it's 1.6 grams per and again, as a personal trainer, I'm actually not supposed to give specific recommendations. So actually I'm going to pull back actually and say talk to to a dietician or somebody who is more of an expert in that specific area. Because it's nuanced, right? Like it's not, it's if you're more active, less active, like, and this is the thing is like eating more protein than you need is not beneficial either. And this is why with our program, it's about making sure you're incorporating it. Like, you know, when you need more protein, you like crave it. I think this conversation is really geared around assuming people are

dieting, not eating enough calories, starving and depriving themselves and just getting their calories out of like fish crackers and not actually making sure they're getting protein. I think that's the, that's something that people don't understand is that this conversation about protein is so huge because when you combine it with dieting, not only are people not getting protein, they're getting all, they're lacking all sorts of nutrients. So the importance is making sure that you are focusing on, on protein. But back to, back to menopause and aging, what is the exercise conversation there? So I think that the big thing revolving around menopause and aging is one of the big barriers that women in particular have to overcome a little bit more than men is the bone density

conversation, right? Women are much more likely to have things such as, you know, more brittle bones or osteoporosis. And I think that exercise, that's where it fits in the conversation there is because, you know, we know that exercise is going to help you to retain your bone, your bone mass and your bone hardness. And so I think that's one area where exercise really needs to be a key pillar in somebody going through menopause or perimenopause is because bone density is such a huge topic when it comes to how you're aging.

We know that somebody, you know, later in life, they break a hip, then that drastically changes their quality of life. I can't remember the exact percentages, but if you break a hip later in life, that really, I mean, for lack of a better way of saying it, it really messes you up. It's crazy. It's like you have four years of your life left

or something like that. It's like insane. The numbers on that is craziness. Yeah, yeah, it's wild. And so that's, I think, one of the areas where exercise fits into that conversation. And another one is, as know, as a woman, you just wanna, you wanna be strong.

You wanna be, you wanna feel good. You wanna be able to move. You wanna be able to lift heavy stuff and put it down. And I think that that's another place where exercise helps with that. And, you know, obviously I'm not a woman, so I don't know all the different nuances of it. But I think that's where the conversation

revolves around exercise and, you know, menopause or perimenopause. I wanna know what you would say to someone starting exercise in their 20s versus their 50s versus their 80s. So let's start with 20. That's a good question. I think that it's less of, actually let me rephrase this. I think the big thing that I would change in somebody working out in their 20s and their 50s and their 70s is I think it comes down to a change of goals. I mean, I think that after 50, balance is much more of a struggle for a lot of people

compared to people in their 20s. Now that's not to say balance isn't important in your 20s. It's just something that in your 20ss you don't really think about it. It's not something that really has decreased all that much yet, whereas when you're later in life balance is an area that you need to be thinking about and you need to be incorporating balance and stability exercises into routine which is going gonna support your body later. And then another area is focusing on mobility. Now, same thing in your 20s,

I mean, I know a lot of 20 year olds, I know a lot of them who are not flexible, are not mobile, but they still have a lot of time to work on that. And because they still have a little bit more strength, they're able to kind of get away with it a little bit more. And that's compared to somebody over 50 or in their 70s, where if you're lacking mobility and you're lacking strength, then that makes it really difficult to function day to day with all the activities that you need to do going about your day.

What is the ideal way to start? The ideal way to start with working out. Yeah. I think that the ideal place to start. Like I'm listening to you and people are saying YouTube and gym and whatever and I'm just like, ah, I just got to do something. Yeah. Yeah, no, I going to do? Yeah. No, I hear what you're saying there.

Because I think starting is the hardest part for a lot of people. I think that there's almost a, not necessarily a stigma around exercise. But there's this thing where it's a chore for a lot of people. They look at it as a chore. Yes. And so I think that mindset around exercise is a really really big piece of starting. And so I actually I actually just came out with a podcast episode yesterday which was comparing motivation versus discipline and how a lot of people are waiting for

motivation to get started. When motivation is kind of you know it comes and it goes it's a little bit more emotional compared to setting yourself up with the discipline to know this is important for me, I need to do it, and then following through with it. And so in terms of actual, you know, tangible or practical ways of somebody to actually start working out, I think the big thing is just getting going. And so I think that a personal trainer is a great way to start. I think that going to a Pilates class, I mean, there's even apps like, I think it's called a class pass

where you can get a certain amount of credits and use them for different types of classes. I think it's really important to experiment and try those different things. And when you find something that you like, stick with it and just keep going with it. And that's gonna be a really big, I think, benefit to people. That's a great tip because I think people think that they have to do something

and commit to that one thing. I'm gonna do Pilates, then you get there and you hate it. I'm gonna do yoga and you get there and you're like, oh my god. I'm gonna do, I don't know, whatever it is, rather than just like figure it out. What do you think you would like doing? Well, maybe it's a dance class, maybe it's aqua fit, maybe's something else then once you start moving it's so much easier for you to get into it if you could pick one exercise for people to do what would it be one exercise for people to do yeah um for any change based on aging just change based on me i was gonna ask out of that actually i think that if i'm 25 and 80 what would the exercise be? Dr. Justin Marchegiani I think, you know, I am gonna actually give the same exercise

for each one. And the reason being is because there's a lot of ways that you can modify it. And so, the exercise I'm gonna give which I don't know if it's a surprise or not is a squat. Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah. Dr. Justin Marchegiani The reason why I'm gonna say a squat is because one, you can load it up heavy if you want or you don't have to. You can modify your foot position based on if you're having knee pains. You can take away

range of motion. Same thing if you get into a deeper range of motion and that's painful for you, then don't do it. Take away some of the range of motion. Or when we're talking about balance and stability, you can even eventually do something like a single leg squat. And a single leg squat is very, very hard. And so you can add something like a single leg squat and a single leg squat is very, very hard. And so you can add something like a TRX or a suspension to hold on while you're doing it. And so I think just the amount of ways that you can modify it to fit whatever goal it is, is very valuable.

And then the other thing is just having, you know, if you're holding a weight, now you've got all that weight that you're holding, which is also going to help with things like, you know, bone density and all those other, you know, important you're holding a weight, now you've got all that weight that you're holding, which is also going to help with things like, you know, bone density and all those other, you know, important things that we've talked about today. Yeah, we've had Dr. Tam, my chiropractor come on, he said a squat is the most important movement you can do. And people went bananas because they're like, well, I got knee pain and I got pain. And he's like, you got to sit on the toilet. You got to walk upstairs. You got to do all those things.

So yesterday we did, we have a fitness expert, Chloe, come on and she did it. She did a whole series of yes, you can. Yeah, I got to get you to do. We got to do something. We got to do something. Yes, you can series where she shows different variations of a squat.

I just, this comment came up. I know we got to go. Our time is coming to an end, but Jim, I had a heart go, our time is coming to an end, but Jim, I had a heart attack just over three weeks ago. I'm going to be starting a cardio exercise program in the next couple weeks. I mean, a lot of people, there's something that happens to them and they're like, holy shit, I gotta get healthier, I gotta get it better in shape.

Obviously that's motivation to start now. But how do you have something like that happen and not feel overwhelmed about all the things you need to all of a sudden start doing? I mean, they're already doing the living methods, so they're doing so much. That's right. I mean, I can't even imagine going through that and all the different feelings that must be associated with that. Because that's not a small thing.

That's not a hangnail. That's a major issue. That's a life like, oh's not a hangnail, that's a major issue. That's a life like, oh, shit. Right? That's a moment. Yeah. And it's a big thing for them to survive and to be working through it and figuring out

what they can do now to change their lifestyle and to support their bodies. And so I think that the biggest thing for that really is finding somebody who is, you know, specifically qualified to work with that condition. You know, I think that's really there's not much else for me to add to that other than, you know, finding somebody who's really qualified. If you're experiencing not just like a small ache, like a shoulder tweak, but I'm talking about a major condition, an issue that you've overcome or that you've worked through. I think that for that specific person,

all I'm going to say is, kudos to you, good job for you for looking into this, making changes with the living method. That's just, I think that's really inspiring, and I wish them the best of luck. Yeah, Helen's like, I find squats hard as I don't have strength at the moment, my leg muscles to do, and with full tears and tendons.

Yeah, so this is where you start small. This is where you have to start somewhere. I know it's expecting you to throw on some weight and do some hardcore squats, right? This is where if you have limitations, you know, any issues that you're dealing with structurally in your body, it's a great idea to invest in seeking out a personal trainer like Andrew, who, you know, specializes in this area. I want to ask you what

you got going on for people. But first, what is your like last words of wisdom? We can like motivate everybody right now. How's the time they got their eating on point? What would you say are the most important thing you want to get across about exercise? Yeah, I think the most important thing and if there's anything that somebody can take from this conversation, it's that you are in control of your health. And while genetics plays a role in, you know, conditions and ailments and that kind of thing, a larger part of it is in your control based on your nutritional choices, based on whether you are sedentary or you're really embracing fitness.

I think even diving deeper into that, for me, working out is a non-negotiable. It's not necessary for weight loss. As you know, you can lose weight without working out. But I think for all the other benefits of mobility and flexibility and strength and all these things that we use, not just every now and then when we're older and not just now every now and then now, we use it all the time with every movement. I'm using my shoulders while I'm moving right now. And so I think embracing fitness and embracing exercising to your life is going to drastically change your entire future. It's game changing.

Game changer. I love it. Okay. Andrew, I know people are going to want to reach out to you, where they can find you. Do you do, obviously you do personal training, but do you do anything online? What do you got? Yeah. So I mean, people can follow me on Instagram at IamAndrewBlakey.

I'm always posting different types of content to help make this less confusing for me, or for me, for people. I hear you, you too. Yeah, right, I think our brains are starting to shut down now. But I'm always posting stuff to make this journey easier and less confusing for people. I've seen the way that it has changed lives,

and this is something that I want everybody to be able to do. And I mean, while there may be some sorts of group programs kind of working on the kind of coming along on the back burner here, nothing solid right now. But yeah, follow me on Instagram and start, you know, ingesting that knowledge, which is going to just help you in all the other areas of your life when it comes to fitness and where that fits into your life. Yeah, listen, it is a skill to want to help people. And as we look for, that's something that we look for in all of our guests.

And all of our guests are so amazing and they so freely want to share their knowledge because you truly actually want to help people and that is obvious today. So Andrew Blakey, he will be back y'all. We'll make sure we get him, you know brought into the into the weight loss family He'll be back. He'll be here Andrew. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone who was listening today I know you got some good tidbits and takeaways. Thank you. Thank you. That was amazing amazing. Let's take a minute to hear from our podcast sponsor today because this new year, why not let audible expand your life by listening kind of like what you're doing right now. So you can explore audio books, podcasts, even exclusive audible originals

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