The Uneducated PT Podcast - #20 Michelle Ortega - Everyday Athlete's

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

In this episode of the Uneducted PT Podcast we speak to Michelle Ortega. Michelle is a S&C coach who helps high performers keep their athletic ability not just because they use to play sports but because it helps massively with longevity of life. Learn why training like an athlete is so important from this bubbly Portuguese coach who is passionate about what she does.

Hello and welcome to the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host, Carlo Rourke. The goal of this podcast is to bring on interest and knowledgeable people from all walks of life, learn a little something from each conversation and for you, the listener, just learn something from each episode. So don't forget to subscribe to the channel, press the box below, show some support, and I'll see you on the next episode. Okay, welcome back to the uneducated PT with me, your host, Carla Rourke, today. We have a very special guest on, someone who I met in Manchester,

and I've been annoying to get on ever since. Michelle, can you just introduce yourself to the listeners, tell them a little bit about yourself and what you do. Hi, Carl. Obviously, thank you for having me on your podcast. You are indeed very funny. So I'm sure the listeners are going to have a great time. My name is Michelle Ortega and I am the owner and founder of Ortega Performance, which is a strength and conditioning online and in-person service for people who are competitive, mainly over 30s or ex-athletes, people who want to just. just perform better, move like an athlete and look like one, but without the time and effort that it takes to actually be an athlete. Yeah. So would you say that you work with a lot of people

who probably have just retired from sports and don't know what to do with their training going forward? Yes, that's very common. So I have a lot of ex-athletes, a lot of people who were sports, very sporty over their lives, and they've hit that age where I was like, right, I don't have to train 10 hours a day, but I have a job now,

and I have some other priorities. I have life. I have kids. And now I want to have health and fitness as a priority, but not overtaking my life. And that is a big thing to balance that we work with on a day-to-day basis like time management,

but also still having that hype of training, like that athletic elements into the training. Yeah, because I'd imagine once you stop playing sport for whatever reason, because, you know, you get older, life gets in the way. People have kids, people have other responsibilities, like that's been a big part of your life since you were probably five, six, seven years of age. You've done that true. Yeah. Yeah. For me, I started playing football when I was four. Yeah. And like, like, I haven't stopped since. Obviously, my body is telling me to stop now, but I haven't listened to do it. Yeah. But like I'd say, once that's kind of gone, a lot of people probably feel a little bit lost in what to do with themselves after a while. Yeah, it's common misconception. Obviously, once you get to a certain age, you should stop playing sport. And that is dangerous. So if you're that person that you're currently saying, you're thinking, should I really be playing sport at the age of 40, 50, or even yourself that you said that your body is giving way, there are ways that we can train to go around that. So you can still feel athletic, which is the whole purpose, but also look athletic, right? So it's the both and the blend.

Yeah. What made you get into, what, what, what made you decide to get into that career part? So you're going to like this. Well, obviously, all my life, I have been sporty. So actually, when I was four, I used to play tennis. Then when I was about 12, I started playing basketball. And obviously, you know, I'm from Portugal, for those listening, for all my Portuguese, any Portuguese fans, let us know. And I played basketball competitively,

and I got a scholarship to come play basketball in the UK. So that's how I came to the UK initially. And I played in the Nottingham Academy, which is basically where you do your air levels, and you literally every free period you play basketball so my whole life was basketball and from there when I went to uni right I started having S&C so we went to left university did sports science and I fell in love basically with the S&C element start asking questions and then I started doing internships so I did four five years I trained in elite sports so I worked with cricket basketball football all sorts for about five years

until I was like, okay, elite sport, and for those of you listening, and you probably know it yourself, don't you, Carl, in terms of elite sport and how some people don't value, you know, our efforts. And even if you're just a good, talented player, sometimes you don't need the gym. I found that a lot in cricket. It was quite interesting, right, because it's not a sport that needs a lot of athletic ability, something like basketball. So you can kind of get away with it.

So I was like, I really want to be valued here. and I want to be life-changing. So I found once you retire, once you actually focus on your health, the life-changing effects is so much better. So that's why I started to take a performance. And on top of that, this is quite, I think I spoke a bit when I went to Steve Foscas,

where we were there together. I was diagnosed with something called spondyl arthritis. So when I was playing basketball at my peak, I then couldn't sit, can stand, can walk, can do anything. and I was like, this can't be over. This can't be my life. I was 21 and I was like, there has to be a way out.

But for a whole year, I lost my identity, right, sport. And I think I can relate to a lot of people that, you know, get injured and, you know, ex-athletes or even someone who has never been sporty, but wants to start something new, that identity crisis that you go through. And because of that, then I now fully healed myself from it. I changed my diet. No very gluten refined sugar. I changed the way that I trained to this.

I call it unbreakable everyday athlete, which is kind of my program. So a blend of athletic, strength, conditioning, and robustness, which is exercises that sort of keep you pain free and going for long term. And I'm fully healed. I can run again. And that's why I started like, I started like a performance because I was like, I want to show people that you can do it no matter how down and how low you've been. And that's kind of how it kind of came together, really.

That's such a good thing. It's such a good point about the identity thing, because it really. really is like because it's something you've grown up in it's something that you know how to do well and then for that to be taken away from your young would cause a lot of people a lot of kind of mental health issues yeah and and it's very hard to go from elite sports actually know i have had a lot because our mentality is all of nothing right or we go 100% in even even sometimes that goes into business right heavy like businessman i work with a lot of high profile people we are all about work, all about thriving, doing our best.

But if something little thing goes wrong, everything goes to shits. I don't know if I'm allowed to swear, but whatever. Don't worry, you're allowed to swear on this podcast as much as you on. It goes to shits. Anyways. Can I jump in and just ask you a question on just even going back there. So obviously you got your scholarship to go to the UK. At what age were you when you moved over?

I was actually 16. So I was quite young. Yes. Do you think that was probably a good thing because you were young you were probably a little bit more fearless? Yeah, absolutely. Everyone was like, you're so courageous.

I'm having the time of my life. I was like, I was 16, I came here by myself, right? And a lot was a big culture shock. Yeah, well, that's what I was going to ask. I was going to ask you about the kind of difference in cultures between even living in Portugal and living in the UK. Yeah, so I don't know if have you been to Portugal, Carl?

I've been to Portugal a few times, but like I wouldn't say that, I wouldn't say that I know the country well. Like I've been to like Alba Fera. We've got some background. We can deal with that. Essentially, and you'll see this. And I think especially if you are someone in the UK

that has never really travelled or experienced culture outside, the culture was more in terms of our passion. A lot of people who used to actually say it's quite funny, you're quite aggressive or this and that. So as a young woman, I find it very hard to convey my passion for sport and competitive elements sometimes in that setting. But that was really important for me because it taught me that everyone is going to have a different approach of how you learn and how to deal. But in Portugal, a lot more active because it's better weather.

Yeah. That's the first thing. And here you sat and you do everything. Every shop closes at 5 p.m. And I don't understand. Because I finished. Because everything stays open later in Portugal to like 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. No, until midnight.

The midnight? Wow. Like I can go off work Can I, for example, do activities, go for a back ride, go socialise. We don't, like, we don't go out, let's say,

I wouldn't say for a drink and a hammer, like the Irish. I even noticed that any kind of warm clients that I lived in, like even when I was in Australia for a couple of months, it was so much easier to be able to just go outside

and go for a cycle and to actually enjoy it or to go for a run and to be able to actually enjoy it. I know. And in terms of what we speak about fat loss or being lean and athletic, right? When people think,

oh, I just go to the gym, but really is all about your neat. And if your neat is crap, then it's a lifestyle thing. So actually, if we started to change the culture, right, and how we go about it after work,

a lot of women, have this obesity pandemic, which I know you speak a lot about in your content, right? Watch all your content, Carl, I'm up today. And, yeah, I truly,

truly believe is more to do with your lifestyle choices after work and like things like standing desks optimise the little things to actually tackle the bigger issue but culturally I think that's probably the biggest hard bit for me is sunshine yeah yeah I would imagine so and are you like would you consider the UK your home now more so than Portugal well I am a British citizen now in 10 years believe it or not yeah it's going to September so I wouldn't consider a home this is actually a very good question. I wouldn't say because I was actually born in America. So I was born in America, grew up in Portugal, parents are Brazilian.

Right, okay. All over to shop, Michelle. Absolutely. So I would say home is where I decide my heart to be and the people around me. So as long as my family and friends are around, for me, that's when home is. For me, I am Britain and obviously UK and has become my home now. I've been here for 10 years. And I will cherish it.

and I will continue to cherish it. But in terms of lifestyle factors and all of that, I want to bring my knowledge of the world to help the British population. And would you say that like, you know, the competitive nature that you have in sport, like what was your childhood? Like, did you have very, like,

did you have any brothers or sisters who were quite competitive with sport? Did you have a, like, was your family quite active and stuff like that as well? Yeah, honestly. and I think it makes a big change. My parents were very good with me. They don't drink.

They don't smoke. And they have always been very active play tennis. So I have a brother, actually. So my childhood was amazing. I went to a British school, like an international school. So that's where I learned how to English play tennis from four. Every single weekend, my dad is to come with me and support me in all my games. Literally, have it all in recording.

And you might not think so, but I speak to a lot of people that didn't have supportive upbringing and sometimes that affects their ability to be able to stay active long term for the rest of your lives. And so you didn't have that growing up when you grow up having someone like a coach like ourselves supporting you all the way through. That's how I felt. And then I play basketball competitive with my brother. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, that's kind of, that's a really good point. It's like your parents are almost the first coach that you have in terms of giving you that encouragement and support like to continue to keep going even when you fail and then you kind of build up that resilience true sport. Honestly, the sport taught me more than anything else could. From a mental robustness, like my mental strength, I think is quite good because I failed so much. And people are so scared to fail. I am the first person.

You probably, I was going to be quite funny. If anyone listening, if you can't tolerate pee, close your ears for a second. But last night, I was doing deadlift and a lot about pressure and power lifting. Yeah, yeah, I know where this is going. I'm not sure if you've seen my story. And, but I'm going to make some content about this. But things like that, I've learned the art of not giving a fuck. Yeah, yeah.

And I think people, if people adopted that and started focusing more on themselves instead of making other people happy over other people expectations, which is what I did growing up and what my parents always encouraged. And if you're a dad listening to this is what that's what you should do to your children. You know, when we have children, I'm going to be like, right, you do as much support as you can, fail as much as possible. and I think that's what made me the person that I am today is I love failing because that means I'm better. Yeah, it's such a massive part of sport

that people don't talk about is the fact that you continue to fail and you miss chances and you miss shots and you accept it and you go again and you go again and that does give you that kind of resilience which transfers over into life and to everyday things that we do. And business, you know,

even not running a business. We know how challenging it is to be self-employed. But we keep, go no matter what, no matter how low you get. And when you play sport

and you do succeed, it also gives you that confidence to back yourself then to which transfers over to things like trying to be a business owner or going after new projects and stuff like that.

Whereas a lot of people who didn't have that grown up probably don't have the self-confidence or the self-esteem to kind of take on them challenges. Self-esteem. I love this topic because I think naturally

I'm quite a confidence person. And for me, the definition of confidence and you can correct me or discuss if I'm wrong, I want to know what you think obviously confidence is, but it's just sticking to what you said you're going to do.

Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. So, because let's say, in sport, let's say, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go to the gym at 5am and then I go. That increases my confidence. Yeah. Or I'm going to eat, I'm not going to eat fried food

today because I love my body and I want to feel great. That's confidence. Yeah. Or someone telling you that you can't do something but you say no, I am going to do and you continue to try and try until you eventually succeed. That's confidence as well. Absolutely. You know, and it's going,

it's backing yourself up. Yeah, 100%. Because you can sit around here and say, no, Michelle, you know, you can't do this. And I said, you know what, Carl, let me prove you wrong. Through my actions, because in the beauty of sport or gym, right, let's say physique, having a great physique, is nothing can take that way from you because you earned it or you lost it.

It's your fault no matter what. We can say obesity or any factor of someone not being able to lose weight, gain muscle to be a very complex aspect and it is. However, at the end of the day, your mouth is yours and you put it if you want. Yeah. Well, that's the, yeah, so that's the thing about sports is that it gives you that ability to almost be stubborn into saying that, no, I'm going to achieve this and I'm going to do this no matter what, no matter how many setbacks I have,

no matter how many failures I have, I am going to achieve this goal, which is really important. Can I ask you a couple of, there will be people who are listening to this, who play sports, they might play sports at an amateur level or maybe semi-pro or just trying to get better,

or just like you said, just kind of everyday athletes, people who had finished sports but are still trying to improve. What is some of the biggest mistakes that you see athletes make with their training? Every day, absolutely. everyday athletes.

So the biggest mistake is thinking that you need to put five, six, seven hours a week to see the results that you want to see. So is overthinking it and striving for perfection. First of all, it's more about how you train and how effective is your training. If you started jumping more, if you started sprinting more, so basically not doing what our body was designed to do. Training like a bodybuilder for me, sorry, is probably my, really is a mistake because you're going to be stiff and people come to me all the time.

I am in pain. I can't move. I can't sit. My kids think I'm old. I'm about 70. I'm about 40. Right? So training more like an athlete, i.e.

sprinting. So it doesn't matter what lever you are in. Do more jumping and do more sprinting in your training is what I recommend. Because if you train like a body bill, yes, you can have big guns. I still do my bicep curls. And they look good. You know, or for my ladies, get your glug gleeves, right? But if you just train like that, you're going to be missing out on longevity quality, things like you won't be able to throw a ball with your kids.

Something like working on different planes. So the biggest mistake for me is not training in all planes of movement and training like a bodybuilder. I personally think if you train more like, if everyone trained a little bit more like an athlete, which is the whole concept of it, doesn't matter what level you're in, it could just be a jog. You might not look amazing to you. It's better than you did last week. So don't, the second mistake is thinking you need to be the level that you used to be when you were a pro or, you know, when you were a kid. And you don't need to. You just need to keep going for this for longer than anyone else.

Yeah, I think that, I think that if for, if we're talking about the demographic of clients that you have that used to be athletes and now are retired but still won the train. I'd say a big thing for them would be the ego of thinking, oh, I was able to do this when I was 25. but now I'm 35 and I can't do it. And they're still trying to train like they're 25 even though they're 35 or 45. So for those people, and this is the most people that I train, I always say this, when you're 50-60,

are you willing to talk to yourself and look at that ego and say, I am now fat, overweight, obese, and I have a medical bill of the size of my head. That's what I always. I always say the risk and the outcomes they're going to come later and off it's not worth it. Yeah. Yeah. So I teach them. Yeah. Yeah. So they kind of have to have that, you have to help them with that perspective of where they're at now. Yeah. So it's a big reality check to be like, we're not striving for perfection. And yes, I understand we have an ego and you want to be the best. But right now, if you keep going the path that you're going, you're going downhill. So it doesn't matter. what happens in life, you're going to go downhill.

You have two options. Or you're going to go back up uphill, but take it slow. Or you're going to just keep falling yourself and putting yourself into the ground. No matter what, time will pass. Yeah. Can I ask you a question? So probably the other demographic of clients that you probably work with, let's say people who are actually in sport now, maybe they're like 17 to Turkey,

so they're at present training now. And like you said that a lot of, because I see it in the gym all the time, like someone plays football or someone does my tie or someone does some sort of sport like that but they are training like bodybuilders they're following like a bro split or something like that you spoke about the different planes of motion when training for anyone who's listening who might not understand

what you're speaking about what do you mean by training in different planes of motion for someone who has been trained in like a bodybuilder I should explain that and planes of motion is basically working at or training in different directions. Okay. So we have training upwards, training front, training to the side. So sideways, frontal. So that's the plane. So our body, we split it into three sections, essentially. So we have your vertical plane. So that's up. We have your lateral plane, which we go to the side. And then

the transverse plane, which is obviously anything horizontal. Yeah. So within your training, you should include things like up and down, which is the most common in bodybuilding, right? You pick up things up and down. No one, everyone misses the transverse or the sideways and frontal. That's what I was going to say. I said, I'd imagine it's the side movements, which like a lateral lunge or something like that is really important for like, let's say basketball or football or something like that. And that's the ones that people skip out on all the time, I'd imagine. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing go, maybe a perspective that you've not taken. And this is why I've seen, because I also work with the G.B. Maxis, the master's team, so over 35 all the way to

60 and we lose one of the first things that we lose is hip extension okay um as we age where i've noticed and a lot of a doctor um and things like side lunges and hips it's all of that um if you stop doing them when it comes to them just picking up something from the floor the person ends up straining they're a doctor so forget football you can't even move to pick something from the floor so i think this goes way beyond the sport and this is what i'm trying to understand and what i mean by longevity. Yeah. That's essentially

it's training like an athlete so that you can move comfortably and with mobility long into your later years. Yes. That's my motto. That's where we're all about focusing on movement quality.

Another one, for example, lower back pain quite common. I'm not going to sit here and if there's any things you listen to this and we all know that there's no one reason and back problems are multifaceted. It's very hard to pinpoint why.

a person has back pain. However, through experience and through most evidence that there is out there and from my clients that I coach, usually by strengthening the glutes, improving your mobility and your core, and especially rotational, and that's the key here, rotational, is very good to decrease lower back pain. A lot of my clients, we do a lot of mobility, rotational, we do a lot of weighted, very important things like cable rotations, like weighted and, you know, it would do that in tennis, right? Yeah. Or in golf.

But if you don't do any of those, you can at least do it in the gym so you can go both ways. You can be in the gym to help improve your sport, but also, unless you don't play sport, you're in the gym because it was you're moving the ways that our body was designed to do, i.e., like you play sport. Yeah. That's like, I'm going to be honest, like, I could say very, I definitely. at least skip out on too much rotation

stuff. Okay. Like even... I'm going to keep you accountable now. I know, yeah. I know. You probably even see in my train and it is very much up and down and it shouldn't be. It should be more rotational. And I think if I make that mistake and I'm supposed to know how to train, like, of course, a lot of the general

public or even athletes will make that mistake as well. And I wouldn't see it as a mistake. I would just see it and it's so good that we're doing this podcast. It's more raising awareness. And this is a something new. And not many people do this, and that's why I guess we're unique. And this is something that, you know, come up with and that I've realized through my

spinal arthritis. And I realized I couldn't move. And that's how I came up with. So not many people do this. I would say most of the population don't train like this. So if people can understand that benefits, we are, we're going to be changing the way that we train for years and years to come. So actually, this is quite exciting and something quite new.

So don't beat yourself up for it. Try it. Right? and I implement and don't go crazy like can I? You know what I mean? I already know what are you going to do. You're going to go in. I'm going to rotate every day. They do the cable chaps

every single day. 15 sets. So all you, and this is what I mean by time efficiency. You don't need to put that much time in. One will do. And then change the angles as the way to rest. Don't go low to high, high to low. You can explode, throw med balls, make it fun. And it's also more fun and more adherence, which means more

long-term health. Like you said, kind of not going crazy and bringing it down. It sounds like when it comes to like programming for athletes, for a lot of what you do in terms of the strength and condition and space, like less is more. Yes. A lot of people would think that. Yeah.

Say that again. Wait, say that again. Less is more. So do you think that is that's one of the more difficult aspects of, of your job as a coaches. Because athletes are all, like you said, go, go, go. 100%. So you kind of

pulling back them expectations of what they need to do in the gym in order to see progress. Yeah, so it just we call it athletes

but you know everyday athletes you know everyday athletes they not just on the pitch they just want to do better every rep

everything right? Yes, a lot of the time I have to say stop going for runs for random reasons the reason is and this is why

and I think if you understand this you understand one of the biggest reasons for injury is spikes in load. So what is load? Load is, well, load volume. So volume is how much you do of something. Load is the weight.

If we have a spike, right, when we're monitoring your load management, we call it load management, right? If it spikes, for example, you go Christmas, you don't train for a week, and then you go back, and you decide to train, go back to 25 times a week. There's a spike there of how much you did from last week. to the previous. That spike increases your risk of injury. Same the other way. D-training.

If you go from doing five times a week to then going to one, that spike going downwards decreases your tolerance and it also increases your risk of injury. So our job as coaches is to manage that load and progressively overload that load and volume, not just repsets, but also through the training outside of it. Yeah, that makes sense.

sense. Sorry, go ahead. I'm just saying because let's say I have a lot of people that say they want to run a marathon. Yeah. Or have a marathon. And they just think they have to run at all times. And they think most people also think, I don't need to trend training. Right.

So it could go both ways. Or you're that person that thinks they don't need to trend training or that person that would go crazy on both. And a lot of times that's when we see the injuries because one, they've not built a tolerance to their running mileage. And also their. other reason is because their tendons and tissues can't actually tolerate the demands of what you're about to put your body through. So what we have, our program is like building four stages, like foundation. Foundation phase is to build literally the tolerance and improve in tendon health and all of that so we can move on to next phase, which would be more of a eccentric phase or absorption phase

and to tolerate the explosive plyometrics. So if you just go straight into plyometrics, and don't supplement that with some strength work, isolated work. You can, that's when you are, but I got injured. Yeah, but you've got to do it the right way and that's when we come in. That's it. That's essentially you, period, as I is in their training. And like, would you always start with, so let's use the example of someone's training to do a full marital or a half marathon and, you know, they've been quite sedentary and they don't have

much strength build up and they don't have too much of an endurance tank. Would you always start that way the foundation would be strength training to build up their joints and then building on that then obviously more explosive work and then building on that like more endurance work? Yeah, so it's a good question because it really depends on your training. The people I coach usually already come with minimum at least one year experience in the gym. So that's who I usually, but I've coached a lot of beginners. The beginner, yes, I would have both. So would have your strength training.

But no, there's no need to do plyometrics yet. because the body can't really tolerate. Plyometric see it as a step up to your strength work. If your strength work is not there, there's no, you can jump body weight, but you have to really be careful with technique, number one. So if you're a newbie, listen to this, don't do this if you're not confident with your technique.

Ask someone to look at it at least. Okay, first one. And the second of one, make sure that you can master the basic, as in if you're going to do a squat, if you're going to jump, master your squat first, and then you can jump. So, but there's so many ways to regress pyometrics as well that you can do assisted pyometrics. So, which means you're taking away some of your body weight out of decuasion.

You can hold onto a box and jump, right? So, and you're still doing some level of pyometrics or just a hop or skipping. So little things like that, you can still add some level of low that we call this submaximal polymetrics. So there's, there's two types. The submaxima ones is the more repetitive slow. and it's a little bit more rhythm, you know. And that's what I recommend people start off with as well as in the gym, the strength foundational.

So yes, to answer your question, I'll recommend you, let's say, when you're running a marathon, do very, what we call basically the house foundation of your engine, right? Your cardiovascular system, long durations, very slowly building your mileage, nothing intense, build that V-O-2, and then pair that with some foundational strength and a little bit of Plymetics, submaximal. it's usually what I would go with.

What advice would you have for, let's say, a younger Michelle who's currently in the, you know, all in on basketball at the moment, training really hard? What advice would you have for Michelle when she's training on season and when she's training off season? That's good because I have told myself and gave myself some advice from one back in the day.

So when I was 16 and I know there's people facing this, so this is how my day used to be. woke up at 6 a.m. Go to before school training. And we have the individual. Then when you're a period, you have individual practice. Then after school practice, and then I used to train for the under 18s and the senior pro team. So then on a Tuesday or Thursday, I used to then we used to do a little bit at gym.

And then we used to go two-hour practice for our practice. So there has been days where I have trained six hours. And after a point, I got this calf, so overuse calf injury. Surprise, surprise. Yeah. Two reasons for that. So one, my advice would be, don't be afraid to say no. To when some, because the coach has expectations, you've got to train more.

You've got to train this to order to make it to the top. But I was trained more than the actual pro athletes because they were actually resting. And my advice for myself was actually learn and invest in an SEC because at the time we didn't. I wish I had myself when I was growing up. It's my advice. It's literally my advice. no one told me that I was over, no one was managing my load. So my advice to myself is learn how to manage load and at the time was like invest in an S&C coach at the time. At the time, we didn't have

one that was individualized to me because then I would have prevented a lot of injuries and that stopped me for playing like one or two essential games and I was annoyed and pissed. And that was my life at the time. So that's my number one thing. And number two is getting the gym earlier than I did. I only got in the gym when I was 16, 17. And I wish I would have started doing some sort of gymnastics or some sort of strength training when I was like 12, 13, which is kind of like the age where things like hypertrophy and the muscle growth is going to be the maximise. So there's that sweet spot age where really I recommend starting lifting. And it doesn't have to be heavy things. And there's a lot of misconception as well that lifting stunts growth. But actually

that comes from the myth of weight lifters are quite small naturally. So people think, oh, that was standard growth. That really is just their natural advantage. Yeah, it's like it's correlation, not causation. Well, I always say to people, because people have said to me before, oh, should my child be doing this? Or should they be like lifting weights? I say, hold on, your child probably lifts themselves over a wall.

That's lifting weights because they're lifting their body weight over. Your child probably climbs up a tree. That's them pulling themselves up working their lots. So like your client or your kid is already lifting heavy stuff. but they're hitting themselves. I have this a really good thing because I'm coaching this girl. The name is Liberty.

She's amazing. She's 13 and she had an ACL injury. So they came to me, the parents and they were like, we need to get her back in sport. I saw her in crutches, right? And actually today, she just got the reports back,

her both legs, we did a isosognetic test, the physio did it, and the legs are exactly the same now. So it's a good day. But something that came up on my story did today, and I was doing some fun drills with her, right?

because she's a young athlete and someone commented on my story a few people who were like, why do this when there's no outcome, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I thought to myself, do you understand that if a child

is not having fun, they will hate it and never go back to it again? And Liberty kept going on about gymnastics and how they hammered her and used to press her down into these things

and she was put off by it. She's exceptional at it, but she was put off by her. she says she never wants to do it again. My fear, and what I don't want is, and this probably happens to people growing up, they had an experience in the gym with someone, not their confidence,

and now they get to 30, which is who I coach at the moment, and they're put off by the gym because of something that happened within the childhood. That's a really good point. It's like, like kids are at their most vulnerable

in terms of whether they're going to, you know, enjoy the sport that they're going to do for the rest of life or whether they're going to be put off on it. And also, like, in terms of your responsibility as a coach, making sure that you do it in a safe and friendly environment and give them the knowledge, which most... Funners on the ratings. Funners on the rate of what I'm saying in your training, bodybuilding. Is it fun? You know, it's fun to get big muscles, but the actual it of it is not like the most exciting.

And once you add some sort of things like throwing a ball, and it could be as simple as that, throwing a ball, jumping or jumping onto a box, sprinting. Add those elements, the fun in your workout would be to, different degree. As an adult, we still crave that. Yeah. You imagine as a child. You know what you said there about how you wish that you had yourself when you were younger? You had some sort of a strength and condition and coach.

That's a very high ego person. No, no, no. I honestly agree with that because I wish when I was younger that because think about all the time you would have wasted doing the wrong things that

Like if you had someone there to help you, like you wouldn't be in so further along in terms of your sport, your sport and progress. Like it's such a, and just like gym career. Yeah. You know, my strength,

my bone density. Let's even talk about health markers, you know, my all of those could have been more advanced as well. Yeah, it's such an underrated thing to be able to get, to get that help early just to save you so much time and probably pain and injuries

so you don't do things wrong. Yeah. So for us, you know, investing in the coach, in my opinion, even though I'm a coach, I'm a bit biased, but I generally think it's the best decision that you can make in your life, whether you're a youth athlete or your parents listen to this, or you're in your 30s and you don't know how to take your training or you're confused to how even add that element of fun and move in different plays like we spoke about or just lose weight, like the listeners that you have, Carl. And invest in the knowledge, invest in the ability to learn of what you need to put in your body and the account. ability to get you in a position where health can actually maximize the rest of the aspects of your life. Yeah.

I mean, like it's your body. You're literally going to be in it for your whole life. It's like it's a good thing that you should be taking care of. So it's crazy that we don't actually invest enough time and effort into it, which I think is insane. What do you enjoy most about your job? What do I enjoy? I enjoy, like today, I enjoy people seeing thrive and actually being with them. every step of the way and changing their lives.

The reason I went, you know, into private SSC is so I could have that relationship with people and they tell me about their deepest dark and secrets. And I literally, if something's not right, I feel things with them. But then when we succeed and they get their dream physique, they get their dream, let's say they smash a competition, that's what I love about my job because I know I did my job

and they're happy and they've changed their lives. I don't think anything in the world can really match to being on the journey with someone and changing their lives. And yeah, I just, I love it. I'm a keynote. Yeah, I think, well, like, if you're going to be passionate about your job, of course, you're going to be invested in the clients that you're working with because you spend every single day with them. And it's like some of your clients end up becoming your best friends. Well, the probably is most of them are. Yeah, yeah.

I have mastered that art, Carl. I have clients who literally went on the house viewings with me. I'm not even joking. As in we go for coffees and all the times. I do a lot of client meetups as well, though. I invest a lot in my community and making sure that everyone knows each other because I think it's good to have like-minded people, and I think it keeps you going for longer.

Because I growing up felt like an outsider, really. And I guess it's not something that people even imagine of me because I studied in a private school in Portugal, very small, 350 people. All the girls were not sporty at all. All the guy, there was some that were, but it's kind of like, we could say, like a posh. It's kind of very posh environment.

So on top of that, you know, there was very little people to look up. I didn't have anyone to look up to. I was the first in most of everything. I was known for this. I was just a sporty one. It was just Michelle. It was only one sporty person in the school and it was me. So in my eyes, when I came to love,

university. Oh my God. Yeah. Like heaven. I was like, there are people like me. But as growing up, I can't emphasize the importance of surrounding with yourself with people that you match in values. And I say to people, especially I think a topic for you, I love speaking about drinking, because I don't drink alcohol and you know this. And the choices that I have made through my life, like I don't hang out. My true deep friends are not drinkers. No, no, no. I know Carl that you drink. You're my friend. Don't worry. but as in someone that I interact with daily because I know they could influence me

to go down a path that I don't want to go. That's the only reason, you know? And I think if someone, and if you're next to people that strive to be better, you will want to be better. If you're next to people that drink, you most likely will drink. Yeah.

I don't spend every day in the pub, I just want to say that. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's okay. It's okay, it's okay. I'm going on a night out with you, Carlis. Who do you think has been someone that's being influential? on your career or shaping you into the coach that you have become?

I have a few people, two people. I can give a few shoutouts. Give a few shoutouts and tell me why. And, you know, obviously growing up, well, I loved for a university. First of all, there was this coach of mine. It's called Ben Stanley and Phil Hagarne. When I was playing basketball, I was obviously 16 by myself here. And I didn't really have my parents around.

and the life lessons that they have taught me and the level that they pushed me at to be a better player but a better person every time I felt we would have chats about how's life going he would actually ask how was my life and that changed me as in that made me a much more independent and strong woman to go into university

in terms of that's from a personal level like early days I'll never forget that because it was a time where the culture shock was massive people used to not really understand who I was and having someone by your side that just turns around and say, how are you doing, Michelle? And it's your coach, you know, you, you know, you cry all the time, you're emotional. So that was a couple influential people. Then career wise, I've had a few mentors, one of them, really good one, Jordan Godfrey, he works for London Lions now the basketball team, one of my internships

to another one was Dave of when I used to work with Sussex Crickett he was awesome I don't know if you ever listen to the Bostcott, thank you Dave they taught me kind of like a lot of my foundational things because that was my placement year and I did a whole year

full time as an S&C intern for them and then the other person that currently is still in my life is called his name is Ed Ed and he I need to make sure I want to get his last name

to make sure that I tell him but basically he's my he does my programming his bad has been but basically when we started in the programming I started after lockdown and I was like

I just need someone to just help me get back on track because I went back to nothing and then as we started coaching not only he was helping me with S&C he was an S&C coach for the riders which I used to play for

him so I was learning from him asking him a million questions I'm annoying as hell. But at the same time, I kept being like, can we try this? Can we try that, like the stuff that I do my program? I tried it myself first. So he was so understanding, so everything.

And basically, that's how I ended up developing my program is to be like, Ed, can we try this? Can we do that? So he really influenced a lot of what I do in my career through allowing me to do, you know, what I needed to do and through teaching me through my own body. Yeah. There's two things that I took from. Edward Hayton, that's it.

You're the best. Well done, Ed. Shout out to Ed. Two things there. And how Dave probably influenced you as a coach in terms of how you coach your clients now. Like even the first coach that you spoke about there in terms of it wasn't just from a coach and sport perspective that like the fact that he went out of his way to make sure that you were okay to be personable to ask how you're doing outside of a sport. and like that shows that he actually cared about you, which is really important because, you know,

we'll listen and we'll take on advice a lot more from people that we feel actually see us and care about us. And it's, and it's like you said there that like a lot of your clients have become really good friends. You've become really good friends with them. And that's because it's not just like a job for you to invest in in the person, not just the results that they want. And then with your last coach there, Ed,

it sounds like that there was a lot of really good communication there because you were able to ask, can you try this? Can you try this? You were able to bounce things off each other. And I think there are two big aspects of coaching is like regardless of you know programming and knowledge and all that stuff like do you care about your clients and you know can you communicate with them. Literally number those are my top two things and any client obviously stays with me long term is for those reasons. And because there's a million PTs out there. yes, our unique is, let's say our approach is unique, our program, but we take that extra mile

and I know we can, you know, we're both in FDU as well, isn't it? Which is kind of like our business mentorship and there's a big focus around quality and maximizing and I can sell just from being in the terms of how many PTs there are there, you know? And so it always makes me think, like, that's go back to your niche, right? Why do I want to work with you and why would you want to work with me? is like because I can relate. I've been through it. And I'm the best person to guide you through this journey with me

because this is my bread and butter. I've been through it and I do it all the time. And then same to yourself, you know, you went through your own journey through Fatlas. That's the reason why you coach people with Fatlas, whatever your reason it is. You can relate to it. You can do it.

Whereas I can't coach people as in who just want to lose fire and not want to kind of push themselves and want to kind of do a competition or do a P.B. in the gym because I can't relate to that I've never been obese. You are your client. Yeah.

Perform your best. What do you wish you knew what do you wish that you knew before you started this career? Very good question. He does. Before I started my career in S&C

that What's a difficult? What's something that's difficult when it comes to being a successful S&C coach like yourself. Like what would you tell you know future S&C coaches who want to get into this industry

and want to make it make it successfully? Yeah, it's not about how much jargon you can get out of your mouth through the science is how can you make the complex subjects

simple and fun to understand because if I, when I talk to clients and I can relate them back to drinking a ping pong drinking game they will pick it up it will retain it and you'll stay with them

for the rest of their lives so that's the advice I have for SSC coaches people think get out of uni you know the maximum angle of this is that and they look at me you know

they look at people they're like what the rest of the honour about I just want to be able to lift the weights so I can go up with my kids you know what I mean

that do you think that do you think that strength and condition and coaches try to impress each other with that kind of language and forget that

they're actually talking to a 16 year old girl. Yeah, yeah, literally. People, I see content on the content all the time. People are like, you know, talking to like other S&C, like you're talking to another S&C coach because they're scared, especially being in the S&C industry. So there's difference between personal training and strength and conditioning. It's big.

And usually growing up, like being an S&C environment, we usually shit on PTs, as in like all the time, being like PITS is shit, PITS is shit. And that actually put me off being a personal trainer. because everyone can't say being a personal trainer, you know, because you don't need anything other than a qualification to become a personal trainer. Whereas an SSC, you need to actually, there is two Rouse, yes, and C. There's through level three, PT and then you do a level four. But then there's the UK SCA, which is the UK Strengthening Conditioning Association, which is a separate exam that you need to do.

And that's very 50% pass raise. So there's some standards there. And then there's the NSCA, the National Strengthening Conditioning Association, through the American board. So if you want a job in S&C, you have to be qualified at least one of them to be able to practice S&C in sport, in league sport or that. Or you do unpaid internships for the rest of your life.

You take your poison, you know, which was me. All the internships I did was all unpaid. So that's another rough bit about the, and a bit of an advice that I have. And something I wish I knew is actually, that was years that I did. and I'm paid is worth it.

Someone else lets it down the line privately will admire and will value. You were actually Carl I've just thought of it. What I wish I would have known before I first started is you are worth more than you think.

It's hard to know that when you first start out though, isn't I? Yeah, we've probably both been through the same. And the only reason I managed, it was for me was through you know FPU they gave me confidence within that side because as a coach I felt so competent so ready to smash it

but I was like can our people is it worth it and I was like yes because your health is priceless there is no price to your health once I understood that I was like for me coaching became second nature I'd be like I think everyone needs help because people listening to this

you know you need help we need help in whatever way possible. We all need help, all of us. No matter what aspect, we have to strip down the ego first step and accept where we are. Then we have to be like, right,

how do I get to point eight to point B the quickest most possible way? That's by investing in a coach in my knowledge so I can then be free for the rest of my life and not be in pain. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, even when you said there about all them kind of hours and jobs

that you did at the start of your career where you weren't getting paid, but you were still getting paid, Even though it was probably a slug, you were still getting paid and experience. Yeah, that was, I mean, the knowledge that I gained through that. I know no one, but very few people have it within the industry now. So, and now that's why people come to me. It's the reason people come to me is through my knowledge and having experienced that.

So within my field is very common. People do years of unpaid internships because, you know, that's how you get to the top. But I always wanted to get to the top, you know. I'm not there yet, but we're on the way to the top. All right, I have one last question for you, Michelle, and then we'll wrap it up. So how do you define success in your job? For me, success is when the client is happy and has achieved their result that they're happy with. There's nothing more of satisfying.

And I get so happy when someone turns around and messages me saying, Michelle, thank you for everything that you have done. It has changed my life. and neck and they off and then I see them in the gym later on and they're still smashing it or years later on. You know, that's really success is when you've coached someone.

They're no longer your client and then you see them again one year, two years later and they still fit, still the same shape, if not better than when you first started coaching them. That's true success. Yeah, I can really see how passionate you are at your job

and how it actually gives you real joy when you see a client to succeed on it. I don't think you can fake that. And I think if someone was trying today, would never be able to survive in the, in the industry that you've surviving. Michelle, that was unbelievable.

Let's say someone, listen here. Oh, you're unbelievable, car. Let's say someone is listening here and they want to reach out and they want to be an everyday athlete. They want to start training properly. They want to start training for longevity. Where can they go to find you to reach out for help? Yeah.

So if you just go onto my Instagram, Michelle.orga.orgia. And you just click the link in my bio. You can book a very short, quick, 15-minute call with me and we will just do a little performance audit, essentially. Look at what you're currently training and see if we can help you or not. So ask any questions that you have. You also can message me on, obviously, my social media platform at any time.

My inbox is always open for any questions, even if you just want to say hi, or if you just relate to any of the stories that me and Carl spoke about. and you can start changing your life for the better. Michelle, thank you very much today. I'll leave all the links to your social medias in the show notes and yeah, I appreciate you for today. Thank you.

No, my pleasure, Carl. See you soon. Thanks for watching. If you like that episode and you want to see more content like this, make sure you're subscribed and I'll see you on the next one.