The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Dr. Shannon Ritchey On Optimal Fitness Routines To Stay In Shape & Myths About Health & Fitness

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

#587: Today we're sitting down with Dr. Shannon Ritchey. Shannon Ritchey is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, fitness trainer, and founder of Evlo Fitness. Her career mission is to educate that exercise can be effective without wrecking you, or becoming counterproductive towards your wellness goals. Today Dr. Shannon joins us to talk about all things fitness & muscle building: from the misconceptions behind women weightlifting, to what can happen when you overtrain, & she tells us the perfect weekly workout split. She also gets into why she began Evlo, nutrition hacks, and gives our readers important insight into the best and most sustainable ways to maintain your health without it taking over your life.   To connect with Dr. Shannon Ritchey click HERE To connect with Evlo Fitness click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To subscribe to our YouTube Page click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by Evlo Fitness Workout smarter, not harder. Visit evlofitness.com and use code SKINNY for one free month of Evlo. This episode is brought to you by Sakara Sakara delivers science-backed, plant-rich nutrition programs and wellness essentials right to your door. Their ready-to-eat meals are nutritionally designed to deliver results—from weight management and eased bloat to boosted energy and clearer skin. Go to Sakara.com/skinny or enter code SKINNY at checkout to receive 20% off your first order. This episode is brought to you by Delavie Sciences Skincare The core ingredient in Delavie’s flagship product, Aeonia Age Defying Serum, Bacillus Lysate has been proven to boost hydration, reduce free radicals, and even stimulate the gene that regulates aging. Visit www.delaviesciences.com and use code SKINNY at checkout to receive 25% off your first order of Aeonia Age Defying Serum. This episode is brought to you by Branch Basics The Branch Basics Premium Starter Kit will provide you with everything you need to replace all of your toxic cleaning products in your home. It’s really a no-brainer. Go to branchbasics.com and use code SKINNY for 15% off their starter kit. Produced by Dear Media    

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Cortisol is not bad, by the way. We want it to come up and then we want it to come down. But a lot of us in our hustle culture do more and more and more, not taking charge of our emotional health, not sleeping enough. We have chronically high levels of cortisol. And cortisol's role, one of its roles in our body is to cue up, get you ready to like run or fight. The best thing we can do following our workout is to cue our get you ready to like run or fight the best thing we can do

following our workout is to cue our parasympathetic nervous system to kick on so that we can recover faster so that we're not in this fight-or-flight state continuing on throughout our day so one of the best things that i recommend everyone do after their workout is just some breath work honestly as you do it more you'll find I'm able to relax easier. I'm able to switch between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches really easily. Today is Monday, and this episode is absolutely perfect for a Monday. We are sitting down with Dr. Shannon of Evlo Fitness. This is someone that you have DM'd me to have on the show for a long time. And this episode does not disappoint. I could not believe how much I learned in this episode.

We are going to get to the root of weightlifting. So we're going to talk about the misconception behind weightlifting for women, nutrition non-negotiables to tone up, why fitness doesn't have to be draining, cortisol, the perfect weekly resistance training split, why overtraining is counterproductive, the reason your body needs rest, and how to train your nervous system. Dr. Shannon is a wealth of knowledge. Her career mission is to educate that exercise can be effective without wrecking you. And she has a really incredible story to how she got to this point. She also does a gnarly giveaway at the end. So definitely stay tuned for that. You're going to learn just all about muscle building when it comes to women. I personally am forwarding this episode to my sisters. I'm forwarding it to my stepmom, my friends. I just

think it's such an important episode for women to listen to. And it's so informative and she comes from a place of knowledge. I know you're going to love Dr. Shannon. She's a doctor of physical therapy, a fitness trainer, and founder of Evlo Fitness. With that, Dr. Shannon, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential confidential him and her Why are there so many women That are so scared of the word weightlifting or is it two words both the words weightlifting women are scared of it And I notice it even when

I bring it up on my own instagram stories. I get hit with resistance to it. Like people are like, I don't want to get bulky. I feel like you're the perfect person to ask this to. There's so many things that come to mind. Number one, I think it's all marketing. I think that historically fitness has been women need to be as small as possible and women need to lean down and tone up and lifting weights will make you look like a man. So I think we are trying to get away from a lot of that history behind why women should exercise in the first place. So I think that's the first thing. I think secondly, women are afraid they're

going to get bulky because of this conditioning that we've had in the fitness industry, that if you lift a weight, you're going to look like a man. First off, it is very difficult for most women to build muscle. You have to have a very structured routine, which we can get into that. You have to lift with a certain amount of intensity. You don't necessarily have to lift super heavy weights, which I think is another reason why women get afraid of trying to build muscle because they think they have to lift super heavy and do these compound lifts that they see at like, you know, in the men doing in the gym.

And so they shy away from doing it at all when really there's an in-between where you can lift a moderate amount of weight. You don't have to do heavy compound lifts to build muscle. And you can approach it from more of like a gentle, low impact standpoint and still continue to build muscle and change your body composition. A lot of women, if they start to do that, they end up being really happy with how they look on the outside, because when you have more muscle, your body composition changes. So the ratio between fat and lean mass changes. So you fit better in your clothes. You are stronger. You improve your insulin sensitivity. It's just, I really think that it's the stigma that we, if we lift heavy weights, we're going to get bulky within a matter of weeks. And truly for me, I body recompositioned the last like year. So I gained muscle and lost fat at the

same time. It's called body recomposition. It's a little bit of a slower process, but for me, it took me an entire year to gain five pounds of muscle the whole year. Wow. You know, it's so funny. It's like, as a man, when I broach this subject with the women in my life and they tell me they're worried about bulking ups, I'm like, you understand, like I've been training for like 20 years. You're like trying to get bulky and you're like, it's hard. It's funny. I'm like, they come out and they're like, well, if I do this for like, even a few months, I'm just going to get so big and bulky. I'm like, it is so hard to put on muscle. It just doesn't happen that way. It's so hard. And I think that women, so what happens sometimes is women

will build muscle, but they won't be losing the fat on top of the muscle. So they'll feel overall bigger because they're gaining overall mass, even though their body composition has improved. Their ratio of lean mass to fat mass has improved, but they feel like they're overall bigger. So that's where diet comes in. And because a lot of people lean on exercise, I think way too much to like lose fat and lose weight. And they're not being considerate of how they're eating. And so they're gaining fat because they're in a calorie surplus and they're also building muscle. So they feel bigger overall. So I think it's kind of two separate conversations that you need to have with yourself is like, how am I eating? And then also how am I training to build muscle?

I also think women in particular, not to be sexist here, but they're afraid of the scale. And when you start adding more muscle and then the scale goes up because the muscle weighs more than the fat, you think, oh, I'm gaining weight, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. If you're building lean muscle mass, it's just going to weigh more, but they see that scale and they go, oh, something's going wrong. The scale is going up, not down. I weigh more now than I ever have, but my body composition is the best that it's ever. And I honestly, I truly don't weigh myself very often at all. So I don't really know what I weigh, but I know that I have more lean mass than I ever have. So I'm sure I weigh more than I ever have. What I noticed since i started lifting and

eating more protein is that i feel like my body did like a shrink wrap yes like it feels like everything you'll feel tighter when you have more muscle yes yeah it's way more fun in the bedroom it's way you do you feel tighter don't you think stronger yeah yeah you feel stronger like what are you doing in the bedroom to lift lift yourself? She just went on all different kinds of things. I don't know. She knows just- Staying from the fucking ceiling like Cirque du Soleil.

When we're in the bedroom now, she just picks me up and carries me around. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Please. Lauren's just like squatting him while they're picking you up in the bedroom.

You're going to have to find someone else to do that for you. So I think that the conversation of protein, it sounds like, is just as important to this weightlifting because it's what we're eating. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. And I think that, so first off, I always say my formal education, I'm formally trained as a physical therapist. And so I feel adequate. I feel like I have the credentials to be able to talk about exercise. I'm not formally trained in nutrition. So I don't have the formal training to like give advice about nutrition. I can say what's worked for me. And I can say like what I've learned over the years from talking to registered dietitians and talking to experts about nutrition and from experimenting with myself. So

when it comes to nutrition, from what I've learned, protein is your best friend. And if you are not, when I started tracking my protein, I noticed I was eating like half the amount of protein that I should. And I was like, no wonder it's so hard for me to gain muscle. I'm not eating near the amount of protein that I should be eating to build muscle. And so when you increase your protein, it's also very satiating. You feel like you're going to eat a lot. So you're not like grazing all the time because you feel like you're going to eat a lot. So you're not like grazing all the time because you feel like you're eating a large amount of food. That is what allows you to build lean mass without the protein. You're not going to build lean mass. Your diet and your

exercise have to both be dialed in order for you to ultimately see muscle growth and physical results. So what do you think the right amount of protein is? Is there like a scale that you live and die by? For me, I, and again, different experts say different things and I'm never giving nutrition advice, but for me, what's worked is I try to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Now, if people are trying to lose weight, that's going to be, and they have a lot of weight to lose, that's going to be a lot of protein. So what experts I've heard say is one gram per pound of ideal body weight. You can go

as low as like 0.75 grams per pound, but I like to shoot on the higher end because then on the weekends when I'm probably not getting as much, I'm like a little looser with my nutrition, then it kind of evens out a little bit. But for me, I have a hard time. I know, Lauren, you've said you have a hard time building muscle. I have a hard time building muscle. So I feel like I have to be on the higher end of that protein scale in order for anything to happen. So let's say like just like a rough example of, and I know again, this is not your area of expertise, but if you wanted like 130 grams of protein, like what are some examples of what you would eat throughout a day? Because I think sometimes we've talked about it on the show and people write in and say, well, that's a lot of protein.

How do you even get that much protein? Yeah. I'm not going to lie. I try to eat the whole foods. I do a lot of shrimp, chicken. I eat all the meats. I eat a lot of Greek yogurt. I eat a lot of cottage cheese. I do smoothies. I'm not going to lie. It is hard and I'm busy. I'm running a business and I do a lot of protein powder, honestly, or I'll do protein bars. Like what's your protein powder and protein bar pick? Peyton just gave me this suggestion, just ingredients, protein powder. It's really good. Have you tried? Yeah, I don't. I have never tried her protein powder, but I like love her Instagram account. That's the one I always say. Oh, is she good on Instagram? Oh my God. She

tells you what toothpaste to have. She she sure it's the same person? Yes, I send it to you every second. Are you sure it's the same person with the same post-it? I'm positive. It's every single toothpaste. I changed his toothpaste. I changed your detergent. I changed every single thing that you haven't noticed. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. I still got it. This hair gel is like the most toxic thing I've

ever seen. I'm still working on that. But just ingredients, amazing. Okay, and what about for bars? For bars, I'm a little bit of like, I don't really care as much. Like it's about the convenience. So like the taste doesn't matter. So I'm looking for high protein, like relatively low calories for my protein bars. Honestly, I like the Kirkland ones. Like I know Peyton does not like those. They, I think are good. Cause they're like 21 grams of protein and like around 200 calories, which again, that's what I've heard from dieticians is great for a protein bar. You're looking for around 20 grams of protein and then overall low calories. So how much protein powder are we talking about? It sounds like, so I'll give you, okay. So I'll give you an example of like, if I want 160 grams,

what I'll typically do is I'll have like four to five eggs in the morning, which is a lot. A lot. I'll have, what is the Mark Sisson's collagen peptide protein was like 10 grams. I'll have the yogurt, which is like 10 grams. If you have a chicken breast, call it 50 and then a steak like 50. So you're roughly like starting to get there, but it's a lot. And if you need to supplement them, like maybe you do 20 grams of a protein scoop or a protein bar. How much protein powder do you have a day? I probably have like maybe once and I don't do it every day, but probably about like, I probably,

what I do for dessert, which I love it because I'm a big dessert person. I have to have it like every single day. I'll do Greek yogurt, a scoop of protein powder, and then just like fruit and like a little bit of honey on top.

It's really good. Or a little dried coconut on top. It's really good. That sounds really good. So I'll probably do that like once a day, maybe. Sometimes I don't have protein powder if I get enough from my food.

I found a protein powder hack if people don't like protein powder. Chroma Wellness has the best matcha. Like I'm obsessed with it. It's so good. I'm drinking it right now. And it has 10 grams of protein in a scoop. Oh, nice. Two of those.

The matcha itself does? Yes. It has. It's like protein matcha, but it's like spicy matcha. I would drink it if it didn't have protein in it. It is so good. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to go get that.

And if you also don't like protein powder, like just like the taste of it using. I like ritual protein, but you can use it in and make like protein oatmeal. Yes. Sometimes I have to like dilute the protein and to make a whole smoothie is a whole to do. It is. And then you got to clean the blender. protein and to make a whole smoothie is a whole to do. It is. And then you got to clean the blender. I know. It's a whole thing.

So I'm like, just put it in the oatmeal. Like, let's go do less oats. I mean, I try to find- Is it like a matcha-y flavor in the oatmeal? Not the matcha in the oats. Okay. So ritual protein in the oats and then matcha I drink. Got it.

Got it. And the matcha, you guys, so good. So at what point in your life do you discover resistance training? Was it, were you always weight training or was there? So, yes. So I have been weight training since I was in physical therapy school. However, that was a time where I was a more is better type of person. I was weight training. I was doing high intensity classes or I was teaching fitness. So I was teaching these high intensity classes. I would usually go to a couple yoga classes a week. I would do what I think a lot of like modern women are doing, thinking that

that's what you need to do. I'm going to go to, I'm going to do class pass. I'm going to do this class and this class and this class and far over training, breaking down my body felt horrible. I had chronic pain all over my body at the age of like 24. Remember like my husband and I would go to a restaurant and we'd be like, we'd be like, well, we can't go sit at the bar because like your back hurts too bad. Like we got to sit at a booth and I'm like, I'm 24 years old and I feel like I'm 85. Like it was bad. And I remember as a practicing physical therapist, when I first started and I was going through this myself, I was telling my patients who were struggling with the same thing,

this is just the price you pay to look good, to look fit. I would tell people that because that's truly what I believed because I didn't have the education behind less is more. Structure is actually what's going to get you far better results and you don't wear down your body in the process. So I was lifting weights. I want you to stay on that for a minute because I think a lot of people that are new to resistance training and they started for the first time, they get excited about it. They start to get the endorphins. They're like, wow, there's a new feeling. And then it leads to overtraining. Yes. And I'm looking to my left. Well, I just get intense with everything. Well, because I feel like people, they get,

it's like a psychological thing. They get this rush. No, I want you to talk about more about overtraining. You should stay on that. At some point, I feel. A lot of people do this. And then it ups your cortisol. Yes. It becomes counterproductive. Counterproductive. I think people that are seasoned weightlifters recognize like, okay, like three to four days a week is like honestly enough. Truly. Less is more when it comes. If you are giving your muscles enough stimulus in your actual sessions, you have to trust your body to come in and repair that. And you have to give your body enough recovery. Otherwise you're just going to spiral yourself into chronic inflammation. You're going to end up not building muscle because your body is not going to build the muscle if it doesn't have the proper recovery. So I think that's one thing that

people don't understand. They're like, I want my glutes to be bigger or I want to like tone my abs or I want to tone my arms. And so they'll do arms every day or they'll do glutes every day. And that's the last thing you need to be doing because muscle grows in recovery. Muscle doesn't grow, break it down in the workout. It's growing in the recovery. And after you stimulate a muscle in a workout, there's a process of acute inflammation that happens.

And during that acute inflammatory process, there are certain molecules that are cleaning up and trying to heal the damaged tissue that you damaged in your workout. And this acute inflammation causes a decrease in neuromuscular activation. So it literally causes the muscle to be weaker and at greater risk of injury. So people will not understand that thinking that they need to go do more and more and more for my glutes and their glutes don't have time to recover. So they're undergoing acute inflammation. You're loading your glutes again when they're weaker and more vulnerable.

It leads to injury. Your muscles aren't actually able to repair because they don't have enough time. So it becomes this like chronic cycle. So if you were to have like your perfect world, what is a great workout schedule for the week? When you're looking at, there's a few things. So you want to look at your schedule as a whole, and then you want to look at what's inside each workout. And so when you're looking at programming as a whole, I like to recommend working each muscle group one to two days on non-consecutive days.

So working like glutes on Monday and then not working glutes again till like Thursday and then being done with glutes. And then you could do that for like every muscle group in your body. So give us from Monday to Sunday. Yes. Okay. So I'll say like what we did this week. So upper body on Monday. So let's say we're working like we usually work three muscle groups, like chest, upper back, shoulders or something. And then Tuesday would be lower

body, like glutes and quads. Wednesday would be core focus. So like core and then maybe we throw in like triceps or something. Thursday, we'd come back to glutes again and then work some other muscle group, like maybe glutes and biceps. Friday would be, we're coming back to quads again. We're working quads, abs, all the things. That's what I do. How do I do something different? I want you to call me out. Well, sometimes what you'll do is you'll just-

I'm doing exactly the perfect prescription. You'll train like five, seven days in a row. And I feel like it's counterproductive. Not seven days in a row. Okay, five days in a row. But it's counterproductive. You don't get the rest in. What you're saying is if you're going to train, do different areas every single day.

You can split it. Yes. But you can train five days in a row. Yes, I do train. But I do think that if you're going to train five days in a row, take off two consecutive days because those two consecutive. Sometimes I don't do that. He's right.

Yeah. Okay. Because that's repair time. And not only are you going to see better results because your body will physically repair the muscle that you damaged throughout the week, but it really helps you stay consistent. So do you take off Saturday, Sunday? Always.

Always. And will you like walk or move or do cardio? Yes, yes, yes. I'll usually just walk or like we'll hike or I'll play golf or like tennis or something like that. We try to be active. Like I don't want to say that's total rest, but some days there's just, if I I'm drinking too much the night before, I don't do much.

Having this understanding that taking recovery days is actually productive makes it so much more fun because you have no guilt. What was the epiphany for you that made that switch? What was the light switch moment? Yeah. I came upon it on accident, honestly, because I just thought this was going to be my life forever. Like if I want to look good and be fit, even though it's so ironic, I have way better body composition now than I did then. I was like, this is just going to be my life. Like I'll just have to be in my PT's office every single week. I'll be having to get massages all the time. Like it's just going to be normal. When we moved, we moved from Kansas to North Carolina.

My husband went to Duke for grad school. I stopped my routine just like with moving. Sometimes it's like you just fall out of your routines. And so I stopped exercising for like two weeks, not on purpose, just like trying to get settled, whatever. And after those couple of weeks, I was like, I feel amazing. Like my body feels so good and I'm not exercising. Like what's going on here? This shouldn't exercising make you feel amazing. Like my body feels so good and I'm not exercising. Like what's going on here?

This shouldn't exercising make you feel better. I was like, my energy feels better. My joints don't hurt. Like what the heck is happening? And so at that time, it was kind of the perfect catalyst for me. I started to dive in more into like biomechanics and like the physics of exercise and understanding. I honestly studied some bodybuilding stuff because honestly, bodybuilders know how to build muscle. Yeah, they do. They do. I take and leave things obviously from bodybuilding, but I started to study some of the physics behind exercise and learn some of that stuff. And I was like, oh my gosh, my body feels so much better. I'm training way less and I'm starting to see better physical benefits. Well, there's like a lot of things that we accept as norm that is just, that makes no sense if you were to like pull the microscope back and look like if you're a young adult and you have back pain, that's not normal. No. Like people, but so many people have it and they think, oh, this is just normal. I'm supposed

to have back pain. It's like, no, you don't have any muscle. You have no muscle in your lower back and probably none in your glutes either. Right. It's like, it's a hard truth to face, but people like running around being in sedentary positions all the time and doing training that doesn't build muscle. Like that's why most people are in pain. A hundred percent. Nobody's telling them that. They're just like, oh no, I have back pain. It's like, no, you just have no muscle.

They have no muscle because they have no structure around their workouts. And they think that a hard, sweaty workout that leaves them in a pool on the floor is what they need to do to be fit. Or the music's playing so loud that you can't even concentrate and there's bright strobe lights and someone's yelling at you to go faster and lift heavier. Blow my head off. This is like the cortisol that is... I can't. I mean, I want Bossa Nova playing with like outside calm, like energy. I don't want a ton of people in the gym. Like I feel like the curation of the experience of how you're working out is equally important. A hundred percent. Because if you are so distracted, you're not thinking about,

okay, this is my deltoid. It does, it moves this bone to this and I need to contract it more. I need to improve my neuromuscular awareness to this muscle so that I'm, A, not going to hurt myself. And B, I can recruit more what's called motor units within the actual muscle and get more out of the exercise that I'm doing. So it's just so counterintuitive. People think that, like, I need to go faster. I need to get, like, more reps in.

It's like, slow down. Let's be more intentional with how you're moving. Because a lot of times, a lot of those fitness classes, too. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but someone's phone keeps vibrating. You got to turn it off. Sorry. I don't want it to pick up on the mic. I remember my first beer. Yeah, I remember. Seriously, come on, man. I've only done 700 episodes.

Yeah, what the fuck? Literally. I'll get it on the 700, on the 800. Tell your girlfriend you'll call her back. Listen, they keep calling. They're relentless. Okay, sorry, go ahead. Okay, where was I? So improving that neuromuscular connection is going to allow you to recruit more motor units within the muscle and actually get more stimulus

out of what you're doing. And what a lot of people do is they'll go, they want more in each exercise. So they're like, I want this exercise to work my glutes and my shoulders and my abs. And so they'll be doing like burpee overhead, press, squat, burpee, back squat, overhead press, like all these complex movements that are hard for sure and going to their heart start pumping out of their chest. And but it's not stimulating any one given muscle very significantly. So you're really not going to see much change in your body. It's going to be good cardio, but there's other ways to get cardio that are probably less damaging on your body. Are you referring to like bootcamp ask workout? Yeah. Yeah. And everything I see on Instagram, which is like this exercise targets everything all at once. And it's

like when something's too good to be true, it probably is. And if you're trying to target everything at once, you're spreading your work out so that nothing is really getting very significant stimulus. So it's actually not very productive to do it like that. I also notice as people age, if they're not building muscle, they almost look, how do I say this nicely? They almost, you start to look like crepey or skin because your skin, and you can explain the science behind this. This is just what I see. Crepey or skin because your skin, and you can explain the science behind this. This is just what I see. Yes.

Crepey or skin. There's like, it's not that, that, that the word isn't fat. It's just like they, they start to sort of look like a dementor sucked. Yes. Like from Harry Potter, like suck something out of them. Can you talk a little bit about that as you age, why it's so important to build muscle? Yes. And this is, it depends on like why they're looking that way. A lot of people will look that way because of like just overdoing the cardio. And this might just be overstress on

their body. That's causing oxidative stress and oxidative stress leads to increased aging. Physically, you will see increased wrinkles, gray hair, all those things from actually doing too much and stressing your body out too much. And then there's the other side where it's like people are just too stationary and they're not doing anything at all. And obviously that can cause insulin resistance and all the things that lead to aging. So when it comes to muscle, I think one of the muscle obviously has so many metabolic benefits in our body, improving insulin sensitivity being one of them, which I don't know if you guys have really talked about like in detail what that

means. Please do. Okay. We've touched on it, but not in detail. So I'll try to go all the way to the basics. And if I'm being too basic, let me know if you're like, yeah, yeah, we know this. So when you eat, everyone hears about like insulin sensitivity, insulin resistance, like what does that really mean? When you eat, you have molecules that get broken down from your food and travel throughout your bloodstream. It's called glucose. And this elevates your blood sugar. And this elevation in blood sugar is fuel for your cells to do their thing. And when your blood sugar increases, your pancreas secretes insulin. So this insulin is kind of like the gatekeeper that lets glucose into the cells so the cells can use the glucose.

So when you have increased blood sugar, you also have increased insulin. And what happens is when you have chronic, chronically high blood sugar levels due to overstress, eating a lot of processed foods, certain things can keep your blood sugar elevated for chronic periods. Then you have chronic levels of insulin, and this can cause insulin resistance. So your cells, there's too much insulin around, your cells start to become desensitized to this insulin. They're not able to use it as well. And so it can cause all sorts of metabolic issues in your body. Well, one way that muscle can influence your insulin sensitivity and make you more insulin sensitive and therefore improve every single process in your body because insulin touches every single cell in your body. It's one

of the rare hormones that does. When you can gain muscle, you can improve your insulin sensitivity. And insulin sensitivity. Are you guys following? I guys following? When I got pregnant, I gained so much weight with Zaza, like I gained 60 pounds. And when I went to a specialist afterwards, she's like, you're, you're insulin sensitive. Like it's off the charts. Yeah. Then I started lifting weights and it's gone. And the reason for that is because muscle is a great source of glycogen storage, glucose storage. So when you have more muscle, you have more places for that circulating glucose to go. So instead of that circulating glucose going to fat, it now is able to be stored in the muscle and the muscle is able to use it. So that's how like indirectly gaining more muscle can improve insulin sensitivity.

And if you have, but tell me if I'm wrong, I'm probably wrong. If you have your insulin sensitivity that's not managed, it gives you greater chance for diabetes. Is that correct? Yes. Insulin resistance can lead to all sorts of metabolic diseases, including diabetes. You know what is so annoying though? When they told me I was insulin resistant, instead of saying a doctor, instead of saying, go lift weights, this is something that you can manage yourself. They said, here's metformin. Of course. And my intuition told me, I looked at the bottle. I remember like picking it up and everything. I was like, what am I going to take this for the rest of my life? I didn't have the tools to know that lifting weights and adding more protein, I could solve it myself.

It's so crazy that they're just like, here's a drug. The critics of this show, which there's only like one or two in the entire world, they sometimes are upset when we will call out like, I believe I'll just say this candidly. There is a place for medicine in the world, of course. But if your first step is to jump directly to the medicine before you fix your diet or fix your, you know, your exercise routine or fix your sleep or all of those things, if it's just like jump to the medicine first, then you're doing yourself a disservice.

And I disagree with practitioners that go to that as the first, as the first result, right? Without educating their patients. Yeah. Because let's, maybe this will be a bandaid for now to get you through, but like, let's also do the lifestyle things too, so that maybe you can get off this medicine. Yeah. Like if my buddy comes to me and he's got a big beard gut and he's like, Oh, I know I'm like sad and I'm depressed and like, I can't get laid and I can't like, you know, I got into medicine. I'm like, I'll just look at me. I'll listen to it. You're fat and you're sucking. You got to

get in the gym, get your sleep together. That's how I would talk to my friend. But I have to come on this podge like, oh, well, you know, sensitive, take the medicine. But like, it's like, no, like you got to do the shit. You got to get your life together. And some people need to hear that. No, but I mean, but this, like we have the kid gloves on with everyone's like, oh, just the medicine. It's like, no, you got to get your shit together. If people want to take the medicine, take the medicine, but know all the knowledge before you do that.

Understand what's going on in your body. And the reason if like, I don't think anyone explains this kind of thing. Like I didn't, we weren't taught this stuff. Like I had to go research this and learn what insulin resistance is. And cause I was also insulin resistant when I was going through this over you. And I looked like thin and lean and so many people that like look good on the outside can potentially have some form of insulin resistance. So building muscle is, it's not the only way to improve insulin sensitivity. I want to say that. What are some other ways? Diet and nutrition. And I think like overall, no one wants to hear that, but I also think managing your overall stress too, because cortisol and insulin resistance are related.

So when you have high levels of cortisol in your body on a chronic level, cortisol is not bad, by the way. Like we just want it. We want it to come up and then we want it to come down. But a lot of us in our hustle culture do more and more and more, not taking charge of our emotional health, not sleeping enough, not doing all the things. We have chronically high levels of cortisol and cortisol's role. One of its roles in our body is to queue up, get you ready to like run or fight. So when you need to run or fight, you need to use your muscles. And so what cortisol does is it

pulls blood sugar out of the muscles in the liver to, so that your cells have more available fuel to run or fight. So this increases blood sugar and therefore increases insulin. So this is how stress and insulin resistance can be related. If I have learned anything in the last two years from so many podcast guests, it has been the importance of building muscle, especially for women and especially as you get older. But a lot of women don't want to do heavy squats and they don't want to swing around kettlebells. And I get it. You don't want to fry your nervous system. I, for one, don't want to raise my cortisol. And on that note, I have something that you can do at home that is absolutely

amazing. It combines Pilates, yoga, and weightlifting into every single class. So you're building muscle, you're melting fat, and it is called Evlo. First of all, the instructors are all doctors of physical therapy, and they give you such specific cues and instruction on which muscles you're targeting and how to intensify the work. I also love that everything is built around your nervous system. So while you're building muscle, they're also being really strategic about not pumping cortisol into you. So it's not like some bootcamp crazy class. You can do it from the comfort of your own home and everything they do is gentle consistency. And this to me is where you really see the effects of

fitness. Finding a program too that doesn't overstress your system and also build muscle at the same time is super rare in the fitness industry, but this one is online. You can go to Evlo and you can start learning from their instructors and you can feel the difference. It's so popular on Instagram. So many people have had incredible results. I think you guys should check it out if you want to do something that builds muscle but doesn't fry your nervous system. Evlo is giving our listeners one month free. So no excuses. You can use code skinny at checkout. Visit evlofitness.com to learn more and try their membership for 30 days with code skinny.

Work out smarter, not harder. Go to evlofitness.com and use code skinny. You get a free month. We are in San Diego for half the summer and I had to pick very thoughtfully what supplements and wellness essentials that I was going to send out here. And one of the things that was like a no-brainer was Saqqara's Wellness Drops. They have two that I love. It's the detox drops. They're chlorophyll. I put them in my water. Michael always says I have 800 drinks. One of them is chlorophyll water always. And the chlorophyll is just so good for the blood. I think it helps with cravings. It gives me energy. I just love these drops. And then they also have these other wellness drops that are beauty drops. And these are minerals, which is such a great way to start your day. If you want clearer skin or boosted energy, minerals are so important. And

we've learned about minerals throughout so many episodes of these podcasts. And we've learned all about minerals through the Him and Her Show. You've seen so many people from Andrew Huberman to Organic Olivia to Robert Slovak come on here and stress the importance of minerals. So those are the two wellness drops that I do from Saqqara. Saqqara brings expertly designed organic nutrition programs and wellness essentials right to your door. That's why I like it. So you can literally go online and order their science-backed, ready-to-eat meals that deliver results that you can see and feel from weight management to easing bloat to boosting energy and clearer skin. But if you want some really great meals, like they have these ready

to eat plant rich meals, check those out too. And right now Sakara is offering our listeners 20% off their first order when they go to sakara.com slash skinny, or you can enter code skinny at checkout. That's sakara.com slash skinny. That's sakara.com slash skinny to get 20% off your first order. sakara.com slash skinny. So what are you waiting for? The Skinny Confidential, him and her podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. We've had so many high performers on this show talking about multiple facets of life and how they find performance, longevity, health, wellness, to live happy, productive lives. And in that toolbox for many of these high performers, if not most of them, is therapy. The problem is therapy has not always been

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we do until we talk things through. So if you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Let therapy be your map with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash skinny today to get 10% off your first month. That's better. H-E-L-P.com slash skinny. Again, go ahead and visit betterhelp.com slash skinny today to get 10% off your first month. That's better. H-E-L-P.com slash skinny. Again, go ahead and visit betterhelp.com slash skinny today to get 10% off your first month. That's better. H-E-L-P.com slash skinny. Check it out. I keep this journal and it's not a lot. I'm not like dear diary every day, but I keep this thing just to kind of figure out how I'm thinking at different periods of my life.

I was going through there today and I was like, oh, the times in my life where I've been the most stressed or the most panicked are the times when I've taken the longest breaks from exercise. And I think we're talking about mental health here and so many people struggle with it, but it's like, I have a feeling if the high majority of people had a strong fitness routine or a weightlifting routine, that would do so much to combat mental fatigue or stress or depression. But again, we go straight to the medicine and we don't go to... So I guess what I'm saying is those periods of time when I was looking back, I was like, I correlated like, oh, those are the times when I haven't been training. I've been the most stressed, the most anxious, like all of those things.

I think that the conversation of nervous system regulation is just so not talked about enough. It's not. And it's not understood very well either. And it is a big, when you, I think we talk about a lot, like we're training our muscles for sure. We're training our cardiovascular health, but we can also train our nervous system, which is really cool. And that's something that I like to talk about and educate about.

I think it's super interesting. Please do, please. So, okay. So you have, again, going to go back to the basics here, but you have your nervous system, your body, and within your nervous system, you have your autonomic nervous system. This is your sympathetic, your fight or flight, and your parasympathetic, your rest, digest, and heal. And we want these two systems within relative balance to be nice and healthy. And a lot of people are high on the sympathetic end, like what I just talked about with all the circulating cortisol and overly stressed, not high enough on the parasympathetic end. And so they end up having all these symptoms like tired all the time, mood issues, mental

health issues. They can't sleep. They can't connect to people and their relationships, all of these things. There are certain tools that you can use within your actual workout to help train your parasympathetic nervous system, train the side of your nervous system that will come in and heal the damage from your workouts. That's going to make you feel better. That's going to help balance certain processes in your body, help with cell cleanup so that you don't have chronic inflammation, all of those things. So one of the best ways to do this and something that I think everyone should be doing after their workout

is a workout, even if it's like low intensity, will spike sympathetic drive a little bit, will spike that fight or flight just a little bit. Just the nature of exercise is what it does. Not bad. But the best thing we can do following our workout is to cue our parasympathetic nervous system to kick on so that we can recover faster. And so that we're not in this fight or flight state continuing on throughout our day. So one of the best things that I recommend everyone do after their workout is just some breath work, honestly, easy breath work. We include Shavasana, which is like where you just lay there at the end of every single workout. How long is it? It doesn't have to be long. And you'll find that the more you practice, like sometimes it's 30 seconds. Sometimes it's three minutes. I mean, you'll find that the more

you do it and the more you practice it and you guys both do both meditate, it gets easier as you practice it because you're training your, you're training your parasympathetic nervous system. So you'll find that once you practice it more, at first there's like a lot of resistance to it. You're like, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be still. Like you get anxious. And as you do it more, you'll find I'm able to relax easier. I'm able to switch between the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches really easily, which is really cool. That is such good advice, I think, to have that balance. I think that I was just telling Michael, I do this thing called flossing. It's like where you get your fascia stretched,

but you meet it with resistance stretching. So you're pushing when she's stretching your fascia. Interesting. This woman is amazing. Her name's Kata. She's at the road. And I go there twice a week. And the second I go in and she touches me, my body completely relaxes. And it's probably because it's such a good what you were just saying. It's synergistic to weightlifting. Yes. But I totally agree with you. I crave it because it balances out the lifting. Yes. But some people just get so accustomed to being in that sympathetic drive state all the time that they don't even know how to get out of it. They don't even know they're in it. Oh my God. Michael flossing. So telling you for people that are listening to this

and they're overwhelmed and like easy for you guys to say you're weightlifting, you're doing this. It's not to us. It's maybe a natural conversation, but they've never done it before. Like you work with a lot of, I'm assuming mostly women, but but men as well. How do you start easing people into this form of exercise? How do you get people comfortable and not overwhelmed? Because I think from the outside, I can imagine you come into a gym with all these weights and there's all these people slam around and it becomes really intimidating and overwhelming. You're like, I'm never coming back again. I think for a lot of people, going back to the conversation that we had initially, a lot of women are thinking that there's going to be a heavy barbell on my back and I'm going

to have to do squats. And not that I'm saying that those are bad or that you shouldn't do those, but that's not the only way. Our workouts like on the floor a lot or we're using a wall or we're using external support, which you can talk about how that affects the nervous system here in a moment if you want. But it doesn't have to look like I'm doing PRs and grunting in the gym. People think like gold's gym, that's intimidating. I don't want to do that.

You can do it at home. You can get a set of dumbbells and you can start working your muscles and you can build muscle. I haven't done a heavy squat in years. So if you were to prescribe to everyone in the world, five things to do, like five pillars, what would you say if you could wave a magic wand? Yes. Oh my gosh. I have, it's so funny. It's like, you know, my content. I literally have five basics that I talk about and they all do revolve around building muscle because I think that when you have more muscle mass, everything else kind of falls into place. Right. This is why we wanted to have you on. Yes. I truly do believe that cardiovascular health is obviously important, but if you have to pick one thing, have it be your strength training sessions, because you can't separate

cardio and strength training. Like you're going to get cardiovascular benefits from strength training as well. So, cause your muscles don't know the difference, whether you're sprinting at a hundred percent effort or whether you're lifting a weight at a hundred percent effort, they just know there's increased demand for blood and oxygen. So your heart and lungs have to work harder. So that's people think that they have to do all of it separate. And at some point, you do want to add cardio to your routine, but you can get benefits from strength training.

So the five things, the five kind of pillars that I think about when we're talking about how to build muscle, the first is programming. We talked about this, getting really specific with which muscle groups you're working on which day and giving yourself enough recovery. I think just one of the biggest mistakes people make is just bouncing around to all these different workouts. They're going to one workout on Monday, that's working their glutes and their core and their arms. And they're turning around and doing the same thing on Tuesday, same thing on Wednesday. So having structure in your routine is one of the most important things for building muscle.

So that's programming. The second is exercise selection. So this is looking at getting really specific with how you're loading muscles. And this is kind of a lot of what I took from bodybuilding principles. And when I started applying it, I was like, oh my gosh, my joints feel so much better because I'm someone that I can't do heavy squats. It just kills my back. I've tried for years and years and years, and I was like, I just can't do it. I can't do heavy overpress. It hurts my shoulders. So when I found that there's other ways that you can choose exercises that load muscles really specifically and result in muscle adaptation, I was like, oh my gosh, my body feels better and I'm seeing results. So that's exercise selection. It goes back to another thing we were

talking about with like, if you're going to a class and they're filled with just random exercises, like that's not really going to do much for your body. You have to be really specific, which with the exercises that you're choosing. So there's that. Interrupt me at any time if you have any follow-up questions. No, keep going. I love this. And then, okay, great. And then the third is, so programming, number one. Number two, exercise selection. Number three is nutrition. Okay. Number four is recovery. And then number five is progressive overload.

Progressive overload means that you're slowly adding more resistance or volume as you get stronger. When you talk about nutrition, dive into what a day looks like for you. I don't want to say a perfect day, but an ideal day. Yes. So I will say that I like to view nutrition as the weekdays, it's pretty easy for me to be in a habit on the weekdays. The weekends, I mean, my life has kind of changed recently, but the weekends I'm a little looser. I don't really track. We love to go out to eat. I like my margaritas, the speck of agave. You sound like me. I know, literally. I got the same fucking thing every single day until it hits Saturday.

And then Saturday, you go buck wild. I know. I know. I mean, it's like that. Listen, we got one life to live, and I want to enjoy the foods and the fun cocktails. So although I didn't drink for like two weeks up to this interview because I was like, I wanted to be fresh and clear. And I cannot tell you my anxiety has been so much more manageable. I know. It's so annoying.

It's so annoying. It's so annoying. Well, we just got back from a bender. So, I was like, are you guys jet lagged? Seven days of drinking

all day long. No, we're not. I mean, I mean, I'm just starting to feel better. That's what we'll do is a similar thing. It's like, we will not. I mean, I'm just starting to feel better. That's what we'll do. It's a similar thing.

We will go have nothing for a month or two and be super disciplined. And then just let the fucking wheels fall off. I like to live my life like that. Yeah, if we go to a fun place and a bunch of our friends are there, we're not going to be like, no, we got to stay. We were up till four in the morning the other day. I know a lot of- Oh my gosh, you guys are just such fun parents.

No, we never do that though. It's not a lot it's it's here and there so once once in a while we got to remind ourselves that we can like still hang even though we can't i love this but i think like you know i say this on all the time like i've met a lot of very successful people in different walks of life that could be in business or in health if it is but like i would say the high high majority of those people are people i would never hang out with socially because they're fucking boring as hell. And like, you, you can't, you have to have fun in life. Like you don't want to be the richest guy in the room or the fittest guy in the room at the expense of being the most boring guy. Like you have to have fun. Thank you for saying this because I've been really like struggling with this with alcohol because like the less I drink, the better I feel and

all facets, the more productive I am. I'm like, what am I doing with all this time? Like I'm so productive now I have all this time. What the heck? But then I'm like, man, I'm kind of struggling socially. Like I feel like it's just for me, alcohol is like a, it's a ritual that like it's time to like relax. And I think I need to work on that. Not even alcohol, but I can't be at a dinner table when someone's like, Ooh, I can't have that. I guess. Listen, you're not invited, buddy. You're not invited. It's over. I'll see you in the podcast studio. But like we can't, we can't hang. Yes. If you're not going to have a bite of the dessert because you're like worried about throwing off your macros, like, no, thank you. So go back to what you're eating on an ideal day.

Weekdays. I, and I've gone back and forth with like fasting and again, not nutrition advice, but fasting is super contentious. Like I feel like there's, it's some people swear by it. Some people think it's the worst for me. It's really works for me. Like, cause I like to eat big meals. I like to eat a lot when I am eating. I don't like to just eat small meals. So a lot of times I'll, I'll fast in the morning and then I'll have a big lunch. am eating. I don't like to just eat small meals. So a lot of times I'll fast in the morning and then I'll have a big lunch. You guys are going to be like, what is this? No, I love it. It gets so weird. I get weird too. My followers know this and literally they're like, you need to be sponsored by Big Sardine

because you have the amount of sardines. I love sardines. They're so good for your skin. They're so, and they're a superfood. It's like, I swear by sardines I love they're so good for your skin they're so and they're a superfood it's like I swear by what do I say when I get a caesar salad extra anchovies yes I love anchovies too I thought they're the same are they the same no no no they're different caesar salad is anchovies I like both yeah small fatty fish are like supposed to be really good for you glow yeah I did a whole thing years ago where he's like his dad was like supposed to be really good for you it makes your skin glow yeah Howard Stern did a whole thing years ago where he was like

his dad was like healthy and thriving and living for a long time he was like blueberries and a bunch of sardines every day really

that was like his thing I don't give a shit if I smell like fish either deal with it like my skin's glowy okay so go on with your weird meal okay so

sardine you will love this sardine salad if you don't already eat it Lauren it is canned sardines which by the way you don't even have to cook.

You literally just like them into your bowl. Celery, apple, pecans, and I do Greek yogurt. Is that everything? How much sardines are we talking about? A whole can. And I get the ones from Costco. They're so good. And they're, I mean, I think they're wild caught and organic, all the things.

It's high protein, super satiating. It's an acquired taste. But I always say, if you like tuna, you're probably going to like sardines. And it's so easy. I am like the worst cook, like the worst cook. And I also am a little bit of a garbage disposal. I'll kind of like eat whatever. So it's like super convenient and super healthy.

I will eat dog shit if it makes my skin grow. I really will. If you told me dog shit. Well, Lauren, if you start doing that, we might have other problems. I will eat anything, Michael. And I mean anything, anything to make my skin glow. And you know what? You're right.

It is an acquired taste. Yes. But once you start eating it, you're like, eh. And then you see the benefits of the skin. It comes out in your skin. I know. I'm all for you doing wild exploratory stuff. You start eating shit, we're out.

I'm out. Me and the kids are packing up, we're out. We're done. You can just package it in pill form and just take it like that. Okay. So go on. So it's an ideal day. You eat lunch first because you're fasting. Yeah, I usually eat lunch.

Are you drinking coffee? Are you having lemon water. Are you drinking coffee? Are you having lemon water? Are you drinking tea? Talk to me. Oh, no, Michael. Hold on real quick. Everyone wants to know what she eats for a day.

Yes, but when you say you're fasting, this is like a morning. You're not like doing days. Yeah, give us details. No, no, no, sorry. I'll eat at dinner and then I just want to tell...

And this isn't always... Sometimes I wake up and I'm really hungry. So are you drinking coffee before this? Yes, I'm a big coffee. What are you having milk in it? I usually do either black coffee or I'll get a latte with like skim milk, which is high in protein,

which is great. Another way to like sneak your protein is milk. There's certain people that say like milk breaks your fast. I'm not so concerned about like the like holding the fast and like do it perfectly fasting. It's more just like convenience for me. And like usually I'm just not hungry until lunchtime. Again, not saying that this works for everybody but then you have your sardine and then i have my sardine salad a lot like i'll have that like four times a week i'm not gonna lie dinner is like i we do a lot of bowls like shrimp bowl with like rice we do a lot of rice and then a protein and vegetables and in bowls and then sauces. We do both brown and rice and white. I'd like a rice bowl.

You could make that one. They're really good. Like a salmon rice bowl with like some sriracha. I'd like that. Sounds good. A rice bowl sounds good. What do you guys do for dinner? Oh my God.

I do a hamburger with no bun all the time. Yum. No bun. Like cheese and like, or just hamburger. I do a full hamburger like with fucking pickles and mustard and all the things, Yum. No bun. Like cheese or just hamburger? I do a full hamburger like with fucking pickles and mustard and all the things

but no bun. We've been doing a lot of chicken lately. A lot of chicken with hot sauce. We switch it up. We switch it up. We got some

Dan Bolzerian gave us some chicken with Frank's hot sauce on it. I saw that meal. I was like, is that good? It was really good because of the Frank's hot sauce.

Yes. And the sauce is everything. And I ate it because I'm not a big chicken eater. I ate it and we had had dinner afterwards. The sauce has no calories. At an Italian restaurant

that I was so excited to go to and I couldn't eat the Italian food because the chicken filled me up so much. Yeah. So I was like, fuck, this is why everyone eats chicken. But speaking of bodybuilders,

like, I mean, this is, you know, it's boring, but it was, it's like a protein source. Chicken and rice. Rice. Some broccoli. That's boring but it was it's like a protein source chicken and rice broccoli some broccoli that's just like that was the thing and it's like it works i love my

burger with no bun it's like i gotta like live a little oh totally and and like yeah you're not gonna stay consistent with something if you absolutely hate it right and i think like we do a lot of sauces which i think is the the secret. Yes. Like bitchin' sauce. Have you guys had bitchin' sauce? I love bitchin' sauce. Bitchin' sauce is awesome. We do a lot of like hot sauce or like Greek yogurt. And then if you're going to drink on the weekends and let loose and pop puss, what are you drinking?

Margaritas. Margaritas. I do the Casa Amigas tequila and lime juice and I'm always say this wrong Cointreau Cointreau

Cointreau what's what is some pushback that you get on Instagram because we all get pushback what do people say when they're pushing back people get really upset

that we don't that we don't do heavy compound lifts why like squats and deadlifts and stuff like that like squats and deadlifts why do people why do they get upset or why do we not do it? Both. Maybe both. I have found through my experience as a physical therapist, as a practicing physical therapist,

I'm no longer practicing, and myself, that a compound lift is sometimes hard for people to do correctly, especially at home and they end up hurting themselves or it hurts their back. With no trainer present, it hurts their back with no trainer present. It hurts their back. There's, there's a lot of moving parts in a compound lift. And so, and when you start adding a bunch of weight to that and people just have a hard time, it, it, for a lot of people, it doesn't feel great. And so what the research, what the literature is saying about muscle growth is that you can do heavy compound lifts, but you can also do what they call isolated lifts. You can't technically isolate a muscle, but more targeted

lifts, like targeting one specific muscle at a time instead of trying to work everything at once. And both of those routes can lead to hypertrophy or muscle growth. So choose the route that you can stay consistent with and that feels better on your body. For me, I like to do targeted lifts because I feel like I get more out of each lift because I'm like, okay, all I'm focused on is my deltoid right now. All I'm focused on is my glutes right now. All I'm focused on is my quads or whatever. And get that muscle close to failure, which is important for muscle growth, and then move on to the next muscle instead of doing an exercise that just has too many moving parts. So that's why we prefer to do more targeted lifts instead of compound lifts. But that's why we prefer to do more targeted lifts

instead of compound lifts. But there's a lot of like, you know, there's a lot of dogma in the fitness industry and people think that you have to do that. And if you're not doing it, it means you think that it's evil. And I'm like, I'm not saying heavy squats and deadlifts won't work. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that there's other ways that might be more comfortable and might be more sustainable for you. But you're right. If you do do those movements wrong, you could potentially really put yourself out. Yeah. I herniated a desk doing a heavy squat. When you walk into a gym and you see all these people working out,

what are little things people are doing that you're like, oh my God, it's like cringy. Where do I start? Tell us all the little pet peeves you have because I bet you walk in. It's like it's like as a content creator, if I go and like look some like you see things that maybe like it's not a normal person wouldn't see. What do you see? Yes. So first off, it's been like so freaking long since I've been to a gym. Like I can't even remember. OK, let's put it this way. The gym's on Instagram.

The gym's on Instagram. There we go. What do you see people on Instagram where you're like, fuck. Oh, this trend is driving me insane. The whole like core stability will snatch your waist. Have you guys seen this? No. Okay.

So maybe. I'm going to see it now. Yeah. I'm probably being targeted because I'm like, this is driving me up a wall. First off, it's clickbait. People are like, this exercise snatches your waist. You can't spot treat fat. So people think, but that's what it sounds like. It sounds like if I do this exercise, I'm going to like look lean and tight. And it's like, well, leanness is mostly diet. That exercise might improve your muscle mass there, but it's not going to like snatch you necessarily.

And so there's this whole movement on Instagram about like do core stability and stop doing crunches. And that's just kind of driving me crazy because I think it's just a trend and I think it's clickbait. What else on Instagram? Cycle syncing is an interesting one. Cycle sync. Yeah. We've had someone come on the podcast to talk about this. We've had multiple people. I need to listen to it. Say your real opinion, please. Okay. So I think, I think I like the premise of it. I like the idea that you're, you're leading with your intuition and how your body's feeling. And you're not just doing a workout because it's on your schedule, even though you feel like ass. And even though your hormones are like all, you know, doing different things to your body. So I like the

idea of kind of grading your workout depending on how you're physically feeling. Because I think as soon as you start wedging yourself into workouts that your body is like screaming, like I need a rest day or I need to do less today or I need a deload day. That's when you get hurt or you burn yourself up. I like the idea behind it. However, I do think it's a little bit misguided because when we're talking about building muscle, like we said, routine and consistency are the two biggest things that you need to have with a muscle building routine. So if you are doing cycle syncing and let's say during your period, you are just doing yoga and Pilates and then week two, you add in lifting and you add in hit and then week

three, you do only hit and then week two, you add in lifting and you add in hit. And then week three, you're, you do only hit. And then week four, whatever. And also like, oh, fuck, I can't even track when my period's coming. You want me to like track all the, it's so much information. It's so much. It's so much. And it's also like, you're not, so then you're not lifting half the month. Like you're not, you're not progressive. Progressive overload is one of the basics. That makes total sense what you're saying. So you're not, so can you cycle sync while still continuing to progress? Yes. But I would say when you just listen to what's going on in your body. So that's the first thing is like, you can still cycle sync by just grading it back,

like pulling back a little bit on the days where you feel like I don't have a ton to give today. Still lift the weights, but maybe you just don't have a ton to give today, still lift the weights. But maybe you just don't. Maybe you do less sets or maybe you do less reps or maybe you drop the weight a little bit. But you're still showing up. And that way, you're at least maintaining what you have.

And then number two, I think the other problem I have with it is that people think that during your period is when you actually need to scale back. Sorry, Michael. I'm talking about period girl stuff. Not the first. Not the first. It won't be scale back. Sorry, Michael. I'm talking about period girl stuff. Not the first. Not the first. It won't be the last. During your period.

I told him that he's not a real man if he doesn't have sex with a girl on her period. I actually think that just like, yeah, I think if a guy is scared of a period, like you go back to sixth grade. I use it as war paint, Lauren. I go down there. That's immature.

Oh, I don't want to have sex with you because you're on your period. It's just like, you're so immature. Don't you think that's immature? No, agree grow up i completely agree okay who cares also like i told him when i first started dating him i said i find it really immature when a guy's grossed out about when has it been an issue no it hasn't been an issue i'm just saying in my past with other guys i think it's so immature when they're like oh my god you have your period.

It's because men don't understand really what it is and what's going to happen. They think it's going to be a crime scene. It's like a baby. They're like feigning it blood. Grow up. Totally. I'm the one that has to deal with it. If I get the call. Close your eyes and stick it in and go cry to your mom. Turn the lights off, whatever.

Put some towel down. If I get called to the majors, I don't care what's going on. I'm to play that's the energy i need yes go ahead okay so when you're on your period the mainstream advice is to like go hug a tub of ice cream and sleep on the couch and do yoga and pilates and do do nothing but ironically when you're on your period is hormonally when you're closest to a man because your hormones are dropping during that time. So for a lot of people, we've been conditioned to believe that we're like more fragile when we're on our period. We're more tired. We're more lethargic. We need to do less. But in reality, it's actually a great time to lift. It's a great time because you can recover faster because your hormones are lower. But not

everybody. But again, it goes back to like just take out what you've been taught about and like how you've been conditioned about like the female cycle and how do you feel like i feel amazing when i'm on my period the week before i feel freaking awful like and i'm a moody bitch thinking just like a word that people made up do you know what i mean like it's totally a trend it's this is trend i think people make it more overwhelming than it has to be. It's like more protein, lift weights, get your electrolytes. Totally. To me, it seems like we've overcomplicated something that's actually pretty simplistic if you break it down. Well, the fitness industry is hyper-commercialized. So everybody's looking for a way to

differentiate themselves. And so it's like, okay, well, this is the new trend. And it's like, honestly, it's not that complex. Just take care of yourself. If you need to scale back a little bit one day because you feel awful, do that. Everyone in the whole world, correct me if I'm wrong, needs muscle as they age. Yes. Okay. Like, so there you go.

So let's train. Now, that said, you can do what's called, we call them reset weeks. So every eight to 12 weeks of consistent training, you're showing up and you're doing your program for eight to 12 weeks consistently, more or less. You can take a week off or four to seven days off exercise. Look at me. We just took a week off and blacked out for a week. But you know, like picture of wellness.

No, but that's good advice because when i went back to the gym you're stronger i feel yeah i was like on fire even though i was jet lagged i'm like feel the joints recovered so that actually makes a lot of sense there's some science behind this when you take time off science has shown that for some reason when you're consistent with exercise and lifting your body gets desensitized to certain anabolic pathways. Anabolic means like the building process. So for some reason, and I don't know if the research knows why this happens, but with some consistency, you start to get desensitized to certain anabolic pathways. So when you take a week off, four to seven days off, about every quarter or so, that time off helps to resensitize

those pathways so you can come back feeling stronger. A lot of times what people do is after they've been on vacation and they haven't exercised, they come back and they're like, whoa, I feel way stronger. Or like I can feel my muscles contract like in the first rep. Like what's happening? And people think that's weaker. And it's like, no, you've actually probably just resensitized your neuromuscular connection to the muscles that you're actually targeting and recruiting. We recently had this top scientist on the podcast. His name was Kyle, and he is the president of Delavee Sciences. And this is a brand that was created by a very famous Harvard biologist and longevity expert who also is the co-founder David Sinclair I'm sure that you guys have heard of him he's very

popular on Instagram but they created this company and it's a skincare company but they combine technology and natural elements to create really elevated skincare. I got the chance to try it. It's like this age-defying serum, which is wild. And everything about it is proven to boost hydration, reduce free radicals, and even stimulate the gene that regulates aging. So it's like very high-level stuff. Basically, Kyle, the scientist, came on and talked about Bactelius Lysate. And this is the first biological cosmetic to be certified by the Space Foundation. And I personally learned so much about reducing fine lines and wrinkles, protecting the skin's moisture barrier, and even improving elasticity and firmness. But mostly what I got out of it most

as a skincare fanatic is I learned about fighting the impacts of aging and what you need to do. And I think that this is like a very high level brand of skincare. If you want to take your skin to the next level and you want to mix technology with science, this is the brand for you. I am currently testing out their products. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, you can visit Delaviesciences.com to receive 25% off your first order of Elonia Age Defying Serum. You can use promo code SKINIA at checkout to receive your discount. Okay, this is how I know that Branch Basics works. I have been traveling. So I traveled last month and now we are in San Diego. And what they have been cleaning with in the places that we've been in is not Branch Basics.

I'm not joking you. I got in bed the other night and I had a rash. And I honestly think it's because of the products that they're using. Because when I'm at home in my house using Branch Basics, I never get a rash. Here's the deal. If you want non-toxic, hypoallergenic, free of fragrance, free of hormone disruptors and harmful preservatives, you got to check out Branch Basics. I changed my entire home in Austin to a non-toxic environment by switching to Branch Basics. I like this brand so much that the house that I'm at, I ordered Branch Basics to the house and I'm only cleaning now moving forward with that. I literally harassed them and was like, I need Branch Basics in San Diego. So I'm obsessed. I like their premium starter kit. It will provide you with everything you

need to replace all your toxic cleaning products in your home. I feel like this is a no-brainer. It's a no-brainer for me now, even when I travel. I want to bring it with me. I just have noticed such a difference in my well-being and my kids' well-being and even my pets. Everything is baby and pet safe. If you suffer from eczema, rashes, allergies, asthma, make the switch to Branch Basics. I am so in love with this brand that I'm even asking the founders to come on. So you can save 15% and get free shipping when you use code SKINNY at checkout. That's branchbasics.com. Use code SKINNY.

That's branchbasics.com. Use code SKINNY. thoughts? My personal thoughts? I think Ozempic is an interesting one because I interviewed an endocrinologist on my podcast recently, and it was really great. She prescribes Ozempic like every day, all day, every day, because her patients are diabetes or those with obesity. And she was saying, for those who need it, it is like a miracle drug. It's really changing their lives. But what's happening is a lot of people who don't need it are getting on it. And they're not only are they seeing rapid weight loss, but they're also losing muscle. So that's, I think my lens on it is that I worry about people taking it and losing muscle. Cause when you're in a severe

calorie deficit, you don't just lose fat. You also lose muscle. So if they get off that weight loss drug, their metabolism is going to drop because they've lost all their lean mass and potentially other issues down the line that comes with losing muscle. And you don't just lose it on the outside, you lose it internally too around your organs. People don't think about that. Yeah. I mean, it's not good. And then the second thing that I think about with Ozempic from my lens, from my non-MD lens is I think people are, we're going to see people taking it and then like trying to sell you something like, look, I lost a bunch of weight doing this fitness program, or I lost a bunch of weight using this supplement. Like you should use it too. And meanwhile, they're just doing Ozempic. Huh? I'm for sure going to do steroids when i get older i'm too vain about my skin in my face

and i just don't want to lose fat from my face yes and that's what i've heard ozempic face yeah i have a friend who took ozempic and she lost weight like feels great yeah but she lost it from her face too obviously yeah and now she has gained some weight back but the weight has not gone to her face how it was so now she and i talked to her for like an hour the other day she has to do a bunch of filler in her face because she's lost all this fat from her face so for me i just feel like i'm too vain to fuck with my face yeah because i don't want to fuck with my skin maker no i know i just like i just don't want fat from my face yeah yeah but again it goes back to what we were saying earlier it's like

if if there is a medical need and you've done all the other things and like many of these things could be good solutions but again like if it's your first stop you know on the track like that's you know like we had mark sisson on here and we were he was talking about trt and he's like listen he's like as a 70 year old man him doing, him and his wife, well over their 60s, makes a lot of sense. Cost, reward. Yeah, if you're like a 30-year-old young man or woman and you're just trying to get in shape, maybe that's not the smartest thing to do. And I'm not joking. Probably as I get older, especially with all the information coming out of it, the oversight of a physician,

it probably will make sense at some point in your life. But again, these are things and tools that you should use after you've done everything else. And spend your youth building muscle. Women get to be 40, 50 and they start to hit menopause and they see their body composition changing. And it's like, had you spent, it's so sad because there just wasn't the awareness 10 years ago, 15 years ago. We have a friend that just text us and she's like, oh my God, I just gained 12 pounds out of nowhere through menopause. And, and both, you know, she's like, what do we, what do you do? And both of us like text her at the same time. And it was like weight lift and protein. Yeah. And she's like, I do lift weights, but the weights she's lifting are like two pound,

like step up. That's the thing. It's like weight. People say I'm lifting weights or I'm strength training, or they go to like a bar class or Pilates class. And they think that that is enough to build muscle. And I'm telling you the most important thing when it comes, as far as like exercise selection and what you're doing, the most important thing is that you're choosing a resistance and it can be body weight sometimes for some exercises. It doesn't have to be a heavy weight, but you're choosing an exercise where you get close to failure within five to 30 reps. Science shows it could be low, low reps. It could be high reps up to 30 past 30. It's shown that you're not probably not doing much for the muscle, but anywhere in between there, if you're getting close to failure, which means your last

couple of reps, you are struggling. You're probably making ugly faces. You breathing heavy, your velocity decreases. So you breathing heavy. Your velocity decreases, so you slow down. But a lot of times when you have these two-pound weights and you're just circling your arms around for 60 repetitions, you're like, oh, that burns. But you're not getting close to that failure point, so that's not really going to be very effective for building muscle. When you talked about earlier progressive overload, if you're doing that week over week, you're not getting progressive overload. No. Right. Here's what I would tell everyone to try. If you have a really shitty day, like the worst day ever, like having anxiety, you feel

depressed, whatever, go lift weights for 30 minutes and see your mood change. I cannot believe it sometimes. I will be like so annoyed at him in the morning. Every day. And we'll go lift weights and then I'll be like zippity doodah in the car. Zippity doodah. No, I mean, I'm not joking. I was talking on this panel the other day and people brought up something about stress or in the workplace. I was like, for sure, I would fall victim to all

of those things that people talk about stress and anxiety and depression, all these things. If I didn't do these kinds of things to offset and balance all the chaos that hits me every day. Yes. Right. Like that's, it's just the truth. And like the reason I do it outside of being vain is I also want to like be able to have a strong mental fortitude and feel good and have all these, like you can't. You get addicted to it once you start to see how good you feel and once you start to see the physical results then you're like there's a reason that people start weightlifting and then they don't ever do anything else yeah the physical results do that forever to me are honestly a byproduct of all the mental stuff like yes like it's actually like not the physical much as is the mental like oh my gosh amen like

i almost gotta come first yeah because the because. Because I don't think there's a lot of things you can do to offset a lot of the stress that hits us every day besides move your body. Yeah. I totally agree. And I think people often overeat because they're trying to... It all cycles together, right? They're not managing their emotional mind. So they overeat to try to buffer and to try to like dole out emotions that they don't want to deal with or whatever, because they don't have their mind managed. And then they go over exercise to try to buffer and try to like dole out emotions that they don't want to deal with or whatever because they don't have their mind managed. And then they go over exercise to try to burn that off or whatever it might be when it's like it all really does start in your brain first. I know we're joking about like steroids and muscle building and all this stuff. We're not joking.

We're talking about it. But if you look at guys like I just watched this documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger on Netflix. It just came out. It was really good. It was a good. Yeah. And I saw this new show with Sylvester Stallone that was on Paramount. Both of these guys are well over 75 and they are still acting. Look at Robert Kennedy. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Me out.

Yeah. Running around. I know. But they have their mental faculties. They're working. They're in shape. You guys are even better in person, by the way. I don't know if people tell you that, but you're even better in person. If you look at some of the other actors that are in their same generation that maybe didn't take a similar path to training. Yeah.

They just don't look, they don't look like that. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger does not look like almost an 80 year old man and either does Sylvester Stallone. They're still like, you know, jacked dudes. Yeah, totally. What does your morning look like? You're going to be like, what? You don't have them.

I am the biggest sleeper. I'm like, I sleep... I'm not going to judge. You tell me what you do. I know you guys are big morning routine people. And I guess I do have my morning routine. It just doesn't look like what I think a lot of other health people in this space, what theirs looks like.

So I like to sleep as much as possible. I personally believe that if you're not sleeping, nothing else really matters. You can't compensate for lack of sleep. So I try to sleep as much as I can. However, I don't want to wake up and feel frazzled and feel rushed. So what does that look like? What's the time to the time? I sleep, I usually wake up, I usually am in bed by like 9.30. And then I sleep till, I'm usually reading to like 10-ish. And then I'll sleep until like six 30 or seven. So I'm getting like a solid nine hours, eight, nine hours, whatever that, whatever that works out to be. I'll wake up. I'll, I have coffee and water. I will. One of the things

that I've been doing recently is I'll take a long time to do my makeup. It's like this weird ritual with myself, skincare and makeup. And then I'll teach for Evlo. And that ends up being around like nine-ish, eight, nine. And then I'll go about my day. So it's really not complicated. Anything you do to wind down, any brands you like, supplements, like anything specific that you just love right now? I listened to your guys' podcast way back about the red light, about how you replaced all your lamps in your room with red lights. And I did that. And my husband, my husband walked in and was like, this looks like a strip club. Like what is happening here? And now he

loves the red light. Like he, he's always the one turning on the red light. He's like, this makes the big, all our lamps have red lights in them. That's great. It's the best. And my daughter, when he turns on the closet light, we'll be like, turn that off right now. We have blue eyes. That hurts our eyes. She knows. She's training early. Papa, you have poopoo brown eyes, so you don't know. I have hazel green eyes. No, she says you have poopoo brown eyes and that we have blue eyes and that hurts our eyes. So I've trained her to think it's disgusting to turn on the light at night. But I think it was Ben Greenfield who originally came on and told us about that. It's a good hack.

That's how we still go to sleep with that every night. Swear by it now. I got all my friends on it too. Because if you start doing it, you realize how jarring it is to be around artificial lights as you're trying to wind down. Yes. And I fall asleep so much faster now. It's so much easier to fall asleep. Yeah. And then you got to put your phone in the other room

because people are like on their phone in the red light. And it's like, it's like, it's, it's counterintuitive. So do you wake up to a regular alarm? I don't wake up with an alarm. You know, we don't even have an alarm at this point. We just wake up, wake up. Well, we also have a three-year-old and a one-year-old. So, but they wake up at seven.

They wait, they come in your room and wake you up i've gotten bed last night at 7 30 okay i didn't go to sleep at 7 30 i went to bed at 8 30 there was oh my gosh i love this for you i sleep i like trust me i like sleep too i i get the sleep can't do it i don't sleep i don't look the same same like this past, you were like dating someone different. It was like Schmeagle from The Ring. No, there was. I love Lord of the Rings, so I loved that reference. It's not cute if I don't sleep.

So I'm a big fan of sleep too. Let me shut the hell up. I'm trying to talk. Sorry. There was a period of time when we tried, like me specifically, try to do like, okay, you're going to do the 4.30, the 5, wake up and do all that. And I just like,

over the years realized like, getting the proper amount of sleep or whatever the body needs is like, I'm so much more effective, right? A hundred percent. Let your own body heal itself when you sleep.

Who wants to be woken up by the sound of their phone? Shoot me. I'm sorry. At least if you have to do an alarm, get a hatch that wakes you up slow like a cat. The phone is so jarring to be woken up. The last thing on earth that I want to do is be woken up out of a sleep by an electronic. I don't know why it seems like so off putting to

me. This is inspiring to me. So what do you do in the winter when there's no sun? You still wake up? I like go to sleep early. I wake up at seven when there's no sun you still wake up i like go to sleep early i wake up at seven i don't know wake up with the sun or my body just wakes up at seven really we also have this shade we've never talked about this we have this shade that at seven o'clock goes down so what happens is at seven this was a good investment the shades all go down that's he wants to bitch at me and i was like, listen, it's going to be good. No, the shade opens at seven. So automatically, it's like the sun's waking you up besides an alarm.

No, but we time it with when the sun goes now. So like in the winter, you would time it to when it goes. But the idea is like at night, it's blackout. But in the morning, it lets the bright sun in. So you don't need a jarring alarm. I need that in my life. But if you have to use an alarm, I've heard they're not that bad. The hatch,

if you have to use an alarm. Yeah. I would use the hatch. Yeah, because the hatch mimics the sunrise. Right, right. But the phone is, there's also,

if you have to, there's a bedtime app instead of the alarm. Do you know what I'm talking about? That's what I use. And so the alarm like isn't that bad. It's not as bad.

Like the sound is like, it's like little twinkles. Right. My husband's is like, but he still uses his so it wakes me up and it's like, twinkles. Right. My husband's is like, but he still uses his so it wakes me up and it's like, like obnoxious.

Get him on the hatch. Also, if you have a Whoop, the Whoop has an alarm. Yeah, he has a Whoop. You know what? I'm giving a lot of our sponsors just some free, you know what guys?

Seriously. Whoop.com slash skinny, hatch.com slash skinny, just come on, keep going. Those are some freebies, enjoy them. You really are.

What are some beauty products that you love, skincare products? I have been on a skincare journey the last like month or the last year, the last six months, because again, you're going to cringe. I never really did much with my skin. I just would wash it with like soap and water. And that was like it. So it sounds like you're less is more approach is working for you. I do think that it like I do think that taking care of yourself a lot of times from the inside and what you're doing physically will manifest.

Fuck, you're eating sardines every day. I mean, that's skincare. You want, everyone wants like skincare to eat. Go eat your sardines. I think the best, I mean, I don't, I'm again, not an expert in nutrition or skincare for that matter, but I truly took the approach of like what I'm eating because your skin will show what's going on inside of you. I don't get breakouts. When I was overtraining all the time, I got breakouts all the time.

Like my skin didn't look – I looked old. Like it just was not good. So I've been on – I get facials now and like I've been doing vitamin C in the morning and like I'm not – I don't know. I don't really have any And I don't really have any good products to plug. I got you pink balls so you can roll balls on your face in the morning. I cannot wait. Evlo Fitness, if someone wants to start this program, let's say they've never tried to build muscle before, what can they expect? Is there a specific schedule?

Do they get to work out with you? Give us like a walkthrough of what this really is. What's the approach? Yes. So we always say we're not a weight loss program. That's got to be your nutrition. We are a muscle building program. And so that is our ultimate goal. And when you join our membership, we have three different tracks. You can work out three times a week, four times a week, or five times a week. Every single week, there's brand new classes. So either I'm teaching them or our other teacher trainer, Peyton, who's also a doctor of physical therapy, she's teaching them.

Or we've got two other doctors of physical therapy who are also teaching. So it's one of us. And each day, you'll have a new class that you haven't taken before, which helps keep people consistent because they're not doing the same workouts over and over. So you can either choose three, four or five days a week, depending on how many times you want to strength train. And each class, each day is different muscle groups, different class. And what do you need? Mostly dumbbells. And then what are the sizes that we use? I like to say get a variety because as you get stronger, you're going to go up. So I use between five pounds for some of the smaller muscle groups like shoulders.

And then I use all the way up to like 40s for legs. So I was bicep curling 20 pounds today. We're getting up there. But I will say it's taken me three years. And you have the rest of your life to work out. You cannot rush it, especially when it comes to building muscle because your body wants to stay the same. Your body wants to stay in homeostasis.

So if you're going to rush it, you'll hurt yourself and burn yourself out. So dumbbells, do you need a mat? You need a mat. We do a lot of stuff with a chair or a bench. So we'll do a lot of step-ups, things like that. And then a small Pilates ball. You can use a pillow. Everything else is household items.

If you have gliders, great. If not, you use paper plates. And how long is each class? So our bread and butter classes are strength training classes. And those are between 30 and 45, 50 minutes-ish. And this is my thing. If you don't have 30 to 45 minutes for yourself, you don't have a life. I'm sorry. You have to create carve out time to have time for yourself like that. It's an investment. Like it is. It is the best investment you can make in yourself is your life,

your lifespan, your health span. Let me just get this straight. Is it you actually live teaching the classes like Like explain, because you said that you go and you teach in the morning. Yes. So I will be teaching the classes. They're not live. We pre-record everything. So we record everything the week, but I'm big and like, I just do our classes. I don't do anything else because I want to feel what our members are feeling each week. So all the classes that you see on one week, I've done all those classes before the week before. Really smart.

So it's fresh material. Fresh material. I'm feeling it in my body. You have your finger on the pulse, too, of your business. That's very smart. Yeah. So we used to do everything live, and it was just like a nightmare of time zone. So now we prerecord, and we're just a week ahead of the membership.

Yeah, you show up, and it's me teaching. Every workout you'll have, we are big on the nervous system. So we'll start with breath work. It kind of feels like a yoga class when you're first starting and mobility. And then we'll get into our circuits. We'll do lift weights, depending on the muscles that we're working. And then we end with a cool down, which is mobility. And we're really trying to activate the parasympathetic nervous system,

shavasana, relaxation. And then you end your workout and you don't feel like you got hit by a truck. Like the whole thing is we want you to feel your muscles, but we don't want you to feel so depleted that you're like, I need to go take a nap. What are some stories that you've heard from people that have done your workout? Oh my gosh. Most of our people are like, why didn't I find this sooner? Because so many people think that it has to be super intense. And our motto, we literally got this trademarked because we just believe in it this much our motto is gentle consistency so showing up and doing the thing doesn't have to be all out but if it's more gentle on your body but consistent that is where the magic happens and that's where you're going to see the biggest changes so we've heard a lot

of our members are like this is the first time i'm able to stick to something like i've never been able to stick to something i bounce around because it burns me out or I get bored or it's too hard or whatever. That's what people say because we try to educate. I am a biggest believer. The more you know about your own body, the more likely you are to adhere to that. Also, it seems like it's not overwhelming. Yeah, no. There's so much content coming in every single direction all the time from so many different influencers and online figures. And it's like everyone has an opinion.

You can't even get on social media. It's like it's content overload. I totally agree. And also sometimes some fitness apps like you'll be like, what class do I take today? There's so many options. Like, what do I do? And we're like, nope, it's all there for you. We know exactly what you're going to do on Monday.

You know exactly what you're going to do on Monday. You know exactly what you're going to do on Tuesday. You just press play on the class and get your equipment and go. So smart. Can we do a code for our audience? Yes. Okay. This was skinny, skinny, skinny. What can they do? Usually what I'll do is they can get a month, their first month free. So they can try it. And I would say, if you're going to try it, like go all in for the month. Don't try to do like a bunch of other stuff at once. Just do our program because I think you're going to see the best results. I would say go all in, do the month, do the classes. There's really no excuse because you got a free month.

Yeah. I mean, that's amazing. That's so generous. And you can do it from home. Yes. From home. Just need some dumbbells pretty much. Or just get wine bottles. Yes. Anything. Anything's in backpacks. No, but dumbbells on Amazon are cheap now. Yeah, they are. And you can finally get them again after the pandemic. Do you want to also do a giveaway for people to follow? Yeah. Okay. I usually do that. What do you want to give away? You pick. Should we give away like a year? That would be amazing. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let's do a year of Evlo. Where can everyone follow you to win? Should we do Instagram? Yeah. Let's do Instagram. How do they, do you do like comment on a post or how? Yeah. You can comment on my latest post, your favorite takeaway from

this episode and then follow. Dr. Shannon.dpt. What can they find on your Instagram? Like what, what are you known for? What are your highlights? Like what are you doing on Instagram? I'm really trying to educate. You're not going to get on my Instagram and find like workouts. You're going to find education because I think it starts from there. Amazing. Yeah. Where can everyone sign up, find you all the different things? So evlofitness.com is our website. And then I have a podcast. If you like the nerdy stuff, we get it really deep into the nerdy stuff. It's called Fit Body Happy Joints. And then Instagram, kind of on TikTok, not really. I feel like that's the struggle. Mostly just Instagram website and podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. I learned so much.

I'll never stop building muscle. Never stop. Yeah. Lucky you, Michael. Be sure to enter code SKINNY at checkout for one free month. All you have to do is go to eblofitness.com and definitely enter the giveaway. It's a good one.