Talk Fitness Today

Benefits of the Keto Diet

Through the restriction of carbohydrates, the keto diet re-programs your metabolism to burn fat stores for fuel rather than using the glycogen stored in your muscles.

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File talk_fitness/tft005.mp3
Featured Speaker Drew Manning
Organization A&E Fit to Fat to Fit
Book Title Fit2Fat2Fit: The Unexpected Lessons from Gaining and Losing 75 lbs on Purpose
Guest Website Fit2Fat2Fit
Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/fit2fat2fit/
Guest Bio Drew Manning is the NY Times Best Selling Author of the book, Fit2Fat2Fit and is best known for his Fit2Fat2Fit.com experiment that went viral online.

He's been featured on shows like Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, The View and many more.

His experiment has become a hit TV show, called Fit to Fat to Fit, airing on A&E.
Transcription Benefits of the Keto Diet with Drew Manning

This episode of Talk Fitness is in partnership with The Vitamin Shoppe where knowledgeable health enthusiasts are standing by to help you thrive every day.

Lisa Davis (Host): So glad you are listening to Talk Fitness Today. Now my other show Talk Healthy Today, we talk everything health and wellness. We have a Foodie Friday but here on Talk Fitness Today it is all fitness, all the time. Now part of fitness though is what you are putting into your body. Nutrition is a huge part and here to talk about this and specifically, we are going to focus on the keto experience, I’ll call it; is the wonderful Drew Manning. He is a New York Times bestselling author of the book “Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit.” He is best known for his Fit2Fat2 Fit.com experiment that went viral online and he has been on my other show Talk Healthy Today and I’m such a fan. Heh Drew.

Drew Manning (Guest): Heh Lisa. How are you?

Lisa: I’m good. How are you doing?

Drew: I’m doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on again.

Lisa: Well, I love talking to you Drew and I’m just so impressed. Now for people who have been living under a rock, and don’t know about your Fit to Fat to Fit, tell us a little bit about that and then we are going to jump into the keto experience or the keto diet or I think I named it the keto experience or just eating keto, whatever you want to say.

Drew: Yeah, for sure. So, in a nutshell, my Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit journey which I did about six years ago was something I documented online and on my website where I was this personal trainer who intentionally got fat on purpose gaining 75 pounds in six months. I stopped exercising, ate an unrestricted diet and documented the weight gaining process so that I could better understand where my clients were coming from because there was a disconnect between them and me because I grew up my entire life in shape and I never knew any different and so I figured this would give me a better understanding which it totally did. It was so humbling. Way harder than I thought it would be. Anyways, I did get back to fit which is why it is called Fit to Fat to Fit. But I learned so many valuable lessons along the way and that is what inspired me to write a book and kind of create this brand Fit to Fat to Fit which is about having empathy for your clients, more respect and a better understanding. So, that’s my Fit to Fat to Fit journey in a nutshell.

Lisa: You know, I have to say, empathy is so important in this industry and I feel like it is lacking so what you have done is tremendous. I also, oh my gosh, my daughter and I are addicted to your Fit to Fat to Fit program airing on A & E where we and that is like a mouthful. Say that three times fast, forget about it. You know, just seeing these trainers and especially the ones that are really cocky, right and they are like oh why doesn’t this person just get off their butt and they are like holy crap I can’t get off my butt now that I have been stuffing it full of just you know and even just like mainstream food right, standard American diet. We are not talking about eating Twinkies all day.

Drew: Yeah, exactly and that is why I wanted to create the TV show was because I felt like in the fitness industry especially, the empathy was lacking and putting these trainers kind of in the shoes of their clients for a short period of time does humble them and helps them to understand it is not as easy as they think it is and you see it when they go through it of just kind of how hard it can be for the client and that way, they are more understanding, more respectful and have more empathy; especially on the mental and emotional side.

Lisa: Exactly. Alright, let’s jump into keto. Tell us what it is, for people who are totally new.

Drew: So, the keto diet is basically or ketosis is a different metabolic state that your body can enter into when you stop giving it food or glucose, right. So, most of us, we were raised on carbohydrates, especially in America. We love our carbs and so we are mostly growing off of glucose out entire life, but what happens if you stop eating today, would you die tomorrow? No, you would feel like you are going to die, but actually, your body can shift over into a state of ketosis where it is using fat as energy even though you are not giving it any food. So, your body can run a long time without giving it any food, maybe a month or two months or the world record actually is in the 1970s this 500-pound man lived off of his own fat for 382 days consecutively with no food, just water, vitamins and minerals. And so, basically, it is a different metabolic state where your body can convert fat into energy. So, that what keto is in a nutshell. Now that doesn’t mean you need to starve yourself, but you can hack that by doing a keto diet which is a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. So, you are eating around 70% of your calories from fat, 25% from protein and 5% from carbs. And that is where it is different than Adkins. A lot of people think, “Well, what’s the difference between this and Atkins?” Well, Atkins was more of a high protein, high-fat, low-carb diet. But the problem is, that your body can convert protein into glucose if you eat too much of it. So, in order to be in ketosis, you actually have to moderate the amount of protein you eat so it is not as much as people think and most of your calories come from fat which your body can’t convert into glucose.

Lisa: Now are you personally doing this right now? Are you on a keto type of plan? And how is it working for you?

Drew: Yeah, so I have been on it for a few years and I will tell you my first experience with it and I even went on the Dr. Oz show a couple of summers ago, talking about the keto diet and why I like it. And a lot of people think it’s a diet because it is about weight loss; but really, it is so much more than that. But my first experience with the keto diet, shifting over from eating five to six meals a day, every three hours which is what we were taught, you know kind of to keep your metabolism going; I started eating two meals a day, but the keto diet 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs and the thing I noticed is that I was never as hungry constantly as I was. I could go six to seven hours between meals and feel fine but the biggest thing that I noticed, was my brain felt so much sharper. My cognitive function was improved. My mental clarity, my focus, my energy throughout the day, my digestion was so much better, my performance in the gym was actually about the same, so it wasn’t like better or worse and my body composition stayed about the same. So, I didn’t really lose weight or lose fat, although it can be used for that, I just felt like it was nutrition for my brain and that is why I became such a big fan of it because I didn’t have to be a slave to food, I didn’t have to meal prep and bring my food with me everywhere I went, eating every three hours constantly throughout the day and never taking a break. So, now sometimes I eat once a day, sometimes I eat twice a day. I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full but it is just, it is nutrition for your brain is the way I see it.

Lisa: Now that’s interesting about the nutrition for your brain in terms of, so it helps your brain which is great, I definitely need to do this. My brain needs all the help it can get. But that you didn’t lose weight, but for some people they do, so why do you think some people do and some people don’t? Does it depend on how much you are eating or how much you are working out, all that?

Drew: Yeah, so it still comes down to you know how many calories you are putting in versus how many calories you are burning. At the end of the day, my goal wasn’t to lose weight or to lose fat. So, just because you are doing keto doesn’t mean you are going to lose weight or lose fat because, my goal was to not lose weight. I kind of wanted to maintain where I was at. Now, some people, a lot of people do see benefits of going from a standard American diet to a keto diet where they will start to use their fat as an energy source because they are not as hungry as often, so most people will be at a calorie deficit because they are not feeling the need to eat as often, whereas when you eat glucose, carbs, your body will burn through that so quickly, it is a fast burning energy, whereas ketones are a slow sustained burning energy for your body and eating that much fat, kind of makes you feel satiated for a longer period of time, so you don’t feel the need to eat every three hours. So, for me, you know, I wasn’t trying to lose weight or lose fat on it to be honest with you because I wanted my performance in the gym to be just as good and I wanted to maintain my lean muscle mass and I was already pretty lean, I wasn’t trying to get like 5% body fat or anything like that. But that’s why I loved it because it was you know my brain was so much sharper.

Lisa: Now it sounds like for people who do want to lose weight and do better in the gym, would you say the keto helps, because it sounds like you are going to have more energy overall, not just for your brain?

Drew: Yes, but here’s the thing, is there’s a transitionary period of going from glucose to ketones. Like I said, your body has been adapted to eating glucose its whole life and now you are trying to say okay, no more fast burning energy from glucose, now we are going to use these things called ketones which your body has never really used a whole lot or become efficient at using and there’s a transitionary period, so people might experience what is called keto flu which scares people away from trying keto, because they kind of feel lightheaded or brain fog at first or lack of energy because their body doesn’t know how to use ketones yet. So, the way I kind of explain it is let’s say we have a fire and we throw lighter fluid or paper on the fire. What’s going to happen? It’s going to light up quick, immediately. That is glucose, the fast burning energy. Ketones are the coal or the log to the fire that are just a slow sustained burning energy source for your body and so, that’s kind of what is happening when you switch over from glucose to ketones, is your body needs to learn how to use ketones as an energy source, but once it does, after about a week or two, then you feel so much better and you feel so much more optimal. Your brain is more efficient running off ketones. Your organs, your muscles, are a lot more efficient running off ketones versus glucose, but it just takes a couple of weeks to become adapted at first, so people just need to learn to be patient, drink lots of water, eat lots of salt like I know it sounds crazy, but it will help with the keto flu symptoms and the transition will be so much easier if you do that.

Lisa: Oh, that is so good to know. And it nice that you said like a week or two, so, it is not a super long time that you have to feel crummy and it is worth it in the end if you can feel better.

Drew: Some people, sorry go ahead.

Lisa: Oh no, that’s all. I’m just saying I think it is good that you gave us a little time so we are not like is it how many months is this?

Drew: Well some people can take longer, some people it’s quicker and some people don’t experience the keto flu at all, but some people do and they think wow man, this is, I feel horrible, this isn’t working for me. Well, you just have to be patient with yourself. So, I just tell people give it like one to two weeks and then your body should start to learn how to use ketones but the longer you do it and the more consistent, you stay at it, then you start to feel more and more optimal over time because your body is learning, okay I’m using ketones now as an energy source and then it will adapt to that for sure.

Lisa: Alright, so take us through like breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know you said you usually just have one meal or two, but for people who want to start with three and maybe they are a little smaller, because they are having three meals. But you know to keep with what they are accustomed to at first, then, right, maybe cut down.

Drew: Yeah. Yeah, so, basically, the way I kind of coach people on this because I have an online program that kind of walks people through a 60-day intro to keto. And so basically, what works for most people is they wake up, they drink some water, and then I’ll have them have what is called bullet proof coffee, so we do coffee, we will add in some grass-fed butter, some coconut oil or some MCT oil, some really healthy fats for your brain, because your brain likes to use fats as an energy source, especially first thing in the morning and that will actually help you feel satiated. So, you are adding butter and coconut oil and maybe some cinnamon, some stevia and you blend that up and that is like your bullet proof coffee and that is actually your breakfast. So, when people email me and say this isn’t breakfast, where’s my pancakes and eggs and I’m like trust me, this – you will feel really full just having this for breakfast. And then I’ll have – you know most people go workout or they will go to work for the rest of the day and then you know when they get hungry around 11 or 12; which is most people, for lunch you know they will have something that is really high in fat, so what a good source of healthy fat is whole eggs, with the yolk included, even though we have been taught, okay stay away from egg yolks because of cholesterol, blah, blah, blah. That’s old science. But eat the whole egg, so maybe like 3-4 whole eggs with like a tablespoon of butter and sauté it with some spinach or kale or broccoli, whatever kind of nutrient dense vegetables you want to add in there and then you can also add in some full fat cheeses, if you like cheese and that is kind of like my go to lunch and then for dinner, you could do a couple of grass fed burgers, with bacon and avocado and you have some bacon avocado burgers without the bun of course, and then anytime you have vegetables, sauté them in some type of healthy fat, so you know grass-fed butter or ghee or coconut oil or really healthy fats, avocado oil as well and add in some avocados which are really high in fat and that is like a typical day for most people. And people feel really satiated and not having to eat constantly throughout the day and that’s a typical day on the keto diet for me and for the people that I have been coaching for a couple of years now.

Lisa: Now what about for people who don’t do dairy whether they are lactose intolerant or they have other issues or they are vegan, can they do keto as well. Can they just substitute more coconut and avocado oils?

Drew: Absolutely. Yup and I have so many vegetarians and vegans that are doing keto. You just need to learn to adjust the types of fats that you are adding in. So, yes, if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you are going to be adding in a lot more coconut products so coconut butter, coconut oil, coconut flakes, you know full fat coconut milk, those kinds of things you are going to need to add in and you know maybe some more avocados and if you are vegetarian, you do eggs and that’s fine, but if not , then you are going to have to find other sources of fattier cuts of not meat obviously, but you know some people will do fish, but yeah, if you are a vegan, it is a little bit harder, I’m not going to lie. Because you are not adding in any type of fattier cuts of meat; you have to get that from things like avocados and coconut mostly.

Lisa: Now I enjoy a huge salad everyday with like tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, because you mentioned to cook the vegetables, but is there room on this to have raw vegetables as well? And also cook some in the healthy oils?

Drew: Absolutely. So, one of my go to meals is actually I call it the keto man salad. But you can make a woman version of it too. It is- I put the man in it because it is really big. It’s huge. It is like a huge salad. So, yes, I do a bunch of raw spinach and raw kale, raw broccoli, raw cauliflower, and then I will add in some almonds or some cashews and then I will add in some olive oil, some sea salt, some cayenne pepper, some apple cider vinegar, and then I will add in my meat. So, you know whatever type of meat that you want to throw in there whether it is chicken sausages go really well with this or any type of meat that you want to add in and then I kind of just shake it up and that’s like one of my go to meals. But it is pretty big, just to get enough calories, but yeah you are adding in you know maybe a fourth of a cup to half a cup of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil with all the seasonings and those vegetables and that is kind of my – sometimes I will have that three or four times a week.

Lisa: Oh, that sounds so good. Now does super dark chocolate, low sugar content fit anywhere or do you have to take out all sugar, because every day, I have some, it is 75-85% chocolate. Now I am not talking the whole bar, I mean some days I do slip, no, I don’t eat the whole bar, but just a few squares. I know you are only supposed to have one, but I’m just – but that is the only sugar I’m getting other than from vegetables or a little bit of fruit. Oh, speaking of fruit, so chocolate and fruit, let’s talk about that.

Drew: Yeah, so let’s talk about that. So, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the amount of carbohydrates you are putting gin your body. So, I tell people count their carbs, their total carbs for the day, not net carbs but total carbs. So, I try and limit them to 30 grams or less for the entire day for the first 30 days until they become adapted. But for me, I have been doing this for so long, I can eat more carbs than your average person because I work out, I have a little bit more lean muscle mass than most people, so I can get away with like 50-60 grams of carbs per day, but at first, it is 30 grams of total carbs or less. So, if you do want your chocolate or your fruit, just make sure you make room for that in your total carbs for the day so that you are still 30 grams or less. So, you can have anything you want as long as it is 30 grams or less; but you are going to get more bang for your buck getting most of those carbs from nutrient dense non-starchy vegetables like I mentioned; broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, etc. So, you can make room for those you know cheat meals every now and then but for the first 30 days, you have to stay consistent and keep it 30 grams or less.

Lisa: And what have you heard from the people who have done your program?

Drew: Oh man, so many things. So, people – well here’s the thing with the keto diet. It does work for weight loss or fat loss if you are still at a calorie deficit. But there are so many other therapeutic applications to the keto diet, which is why it is so remarkable. So, things like epilepsy and seizures and traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s; any kind of disease of the brain; ketones provide a neuroprotective benefit for your brain. So, even people with like migraines or headaches completely gone on top of weight loss and fat loss of course, that’s the biggest thing that people notice, but there are so many other therapeutic applications to the keto diet other than weight loss or fat loss. So, people with type II diabetes, this would be ideal for them because it helps to regulate insulin and balance out hormones as well, so people with thyroid issues or testosterone issues adding in the healthy fats from these you know whether it is vegetable or animal sources will help balance out hormones as well and so, you know, it’s the huge list of benefits for the keto diet.

Lisa: That is so cool. Alright, so this is Talk Fitness Today, so I always ask the guests certain questions. So, tell us, what do you have in your gym bag when you go work out Drew?

Drew: Honestly, I’m a minimalist when it comes to my gym bag. Very simple, I have – so the one supplement that I do take, I kind of don’t take as many supplements as I used to on the keto diet, so the one supplement I do take is these things called exogenous ketones which basically are a supplemental form of ketones that you can ingest that you know, they make them taste really good nowadays. It is a newer supplement. The technology is a few years old and so, it puts your body in stimulated version of ketosis within you know 30 minutes of taking it which is remarkable. So, it is a great pre-workout instead of the hyped-up caffeine stuff that you can find just at Walmart, right. So, I have that, I have some [inaudible][00:18:15] sleeves, I have a jump rope and I think that is it. And my headphones.

Lisa: See, that’s good. Now I forgot who I asked another guy, oh my Gosh it was like I sounded like he was a cat in the hat and you know, if you ever watched that show on the Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that and he takes off the hat and there is like 35 things in his hat. Like what kind of gym bag do you have? Like a magic gym bag. Alright and what are some of your favorite types of cardio?

Drew: That’s a great question. I don’t do a whole lot of cardio or traditional cardio. If I’m doing cardio, it is going to be HIT, high intensity interval training. So, it is short, quick, bursts of high intensity followed by a recovery period and repeat that interval. So, one of the things I’m liking these days is called the Prowler pushes, so it is like these sleds with weights on them and you sprint down like a turf if you will, some gyms have them, some gyms don’t, but if they do have these Prowler sleds, they are awesome so you add weight to it and you just kind of put it in front to you and you push it as fast as you can and that will exhaust you, so I do maybe like a 20-second sprint followed by 30 or 40-second recovery, repeat that 10-15 times. I’m wiped out for the day.

Lisa: See, that’s incredible. I need to do that. My husband does that and he will come home drenched. I’m like you have been gone ten minutes.

Drew: You should try it out. It is such a great workout.

Lisa: I should. It really you know I just started swimming and so I have been kind of doing it in the pool a bit like I’ll swim kind of normal and then I’ll just all out and then I’ll swim – it’s pretty good, yeah, I mean definitely gets my heartrate up. Now what about using body weight exercises? Is that something you are a fan of? Doing the pushups, the pullups the thing on a chair with you know triceps dips I mean there are so many cool things you can do nowadays.

Drew: Yeah, because at the end of the day, you don’t really need a gym to get a good workout in and so some days when I’m busy, like I’m on the road, I travel a lot or you know I have two daughters so I’m busy with life and I just don’t have time to go to the gym. I know I can get a workout no matter what I have because we have this thing called gravity and we have these bodies with weight so that equals resistance training. You don’t need a bench press or a squat rack to get in a good workout. So, just air squats and pushups and burpees and dips and sit ups and you know if you have a pull up bar from home, pull ups. There are so many great things you can do from home that are awesome or just get out in nature and go hike up a hill and that’s a great workout.

Lisa: Oh, it sure is. Drew you are so much fun. I love having you on my shows. Tell us all the ways that we can learn more about you?

Drew: Yeah, so, if you just got to www.fit2fat2.com you can access all of my programs, my book, you know you can listen to my podcasts on there and all my social media handles are fit2fat2fit, just like my book and my website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and if you do want to try the keto, if you want to do some research, just got to www.keto.fit2fat2fit.com if you want to try it out.
Lisa: That’s awesome. Yeah, I want to do your program. It’s a 60-day program you said?

Drew: A 60-day program yup, I’ll send it to you and you should do an experiment, see how it goes and then do an episode on it.

Lisa: Oh my gosh, completely. I love that idea.

Drew: And I’ll be your coach.

Lisa: Whoo-hoo. Alright, oh my goodness, you have got a deal. Alright I want to thank everyone for listening to Talk Fitness Today. You can follow us on Twitter at Talk Fitness 2day, also on Snapchat and just keep listening for more great information on fitness and nutrition. Stay well.
Length (mins) 21:46
Waiver Received No
Host Lisa Davis, MPH

NFL Combine Conditioning: Train Like a Pro

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to train like a professional football player?

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File talk_fitness/tft003.mp3
Featured Speaker Kevin Dunn, Owner & CEO of TEST Football Academy
Guest Website TEST Football Academy
Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/testfootball
Guest Twitter Account @TEST_Football
Guest Bio Kevin Dunn is a Rutgers University alumnus and holds a BS in Exercise Science & Psychology.

As captain and MVP of RU's Swimming & Diving Team, he was formerly awarded Atlantic 10 and ECAC Diver of the Year. He is a current high diver reaching heights as high as 95 feet in his career and uses that experience to perfect human movement in athletes in the NFL, NBA and MLB.

He holds certifications from every highly respected nationally recognized organization and has developed and implemented TEST’s internal Mentorship Curriculum.

His experience in hospital based Physical Therapy settings and Athletic Training for intercollegiate athletics has given him the prospective from all sides of the rehab process.

Kevin currently leads the research and development team and is on the cutting edge with human performance and biomechanical analysis. With his combination of knowledge and experience, he coaches flawless movement patterns in every sport and in the game of life to avoid injury and maximize genetic potential.

TEST Football Academy is a premier facility in the NY/NJ tristate area. They have trained the likes of Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, Top 5 Pick Patrick Peterson, Super Bowl Champ Duron Harmon and over 220 others that have earned a professional career in the NFL with 91 currently active players on 29 of 32 teams.
Transcription NFL Combine Conditioning: Train Like a Pro with Kevin Dunn

Lisa Davis (Host): Hi, I’m Lisa Davis. So glad you’re listening to Talk Fitness Today, and I am super excited to have the fantastic Kevin Dunn. We’re going to be talking all about NFL Combine Training. Hello, Kevin, welcome to Talk Fitness Today.

Kevin Dunn (Guest): Thanks, Lisa. How are you?

Lisa: I’m good, how are you doing?

Kevin: I’m doing really well. I’m just looking forward to sharing some knowledge. I’m excited about being on the air.

Lisa: Yeah, excited to have you. Okay, so you are with TEST Football Academy. It’s a Premier Facility in the New York, New Jersey tri-state areas. You’ve trained the likes of Super Bowl MVP, Joe Flacco, Top Five Pick, Patrick Peterson, Super Bowl Champ, Duron Harmon, and over 220 others. That is really, really cool. How did you get into this work?

Kevin: It started about 13 years ago. We started working with an agent, actually, that had a similar personal interest in our kids, actually – our actual children. I have a son with autism. He had, also a son with autism. We just hit it off, and he knew that we were involved in training athletes and getting guys – all athletes, at all levels, in all sports prepared for their main event, whether that be off-season, in-season, pre-season. We had a love and passion for football and were interested in getting involved in the Combine business, and one thing led to another.

He signed his first class – he had four players in their very first class. We had four players in our very first year, thirteen years ago. We had four athletes involved in the program, and three of them ended up signing contracts on NFL teams. Pretty remarkable results – the guys that were involved, two of them are still involved with us to this day. One of them is actually our Director of Football Operations, Geir Gudmundsen. A lot of great history there. We’ve learned a ton over the last – over a decade of working with some of the best athletes in the country. It’s been a privilege working with them.

Lisa: Oh, that’s fantastic. You know, I have a daughter on the autism spectrum? We’ll have to talk after the show at some point about that, as well.

Kevin: There you go [LAUGHTER]

Lisa: Lots to talk about. I want to jump into this because you’ve got workouts that you’re doing, you’ve got nutrition, you’re looking at body composition. Let’s start with workouts. Give us some examples of what people are doing when they come to you at TEST Football Academy.

Kevin: Yeah, sure. The biggest impact that we have when we work with people is – it’s important to know where they’re at from a functional standpoint. I would love to have the opportunity to work with someone and know where their baseline measurements are. We put people through what’s called a functional movement screen. It’s seven different tests that basically screen for any asymmetries or dysfunctions in the movement pattern. We try to clean those up right away. That’s one of the first things that we do upon their evaluation.

Taking someone from that to giving them the correct prescription of exercises that will help rebuild the foundation that some of these athletes really have not focused on as much throughout their career. Building strength, and power, and explosiveness are obviously big markers, but without – if you’re trying to build those on a foundation of sand, it’s just a recipe for a catastrophe at some level. Non-contact injuries are still a big issue in all sports, not just football. You see it all the time with ACL tears, and more prevalent in female athletes, but those are some things that we can identify right away, and once we have that clear foundation of rebuilding and restructuring their movements, and we know that they can squat with a wooden dowel over their head in a proper way, then we can start to add resistance to those movements and feel comfortable knowing that the movements that we are strengthening are ones that are correct, versus trying to compensate with other muscle groups or other movements that may push them through the movement, but they’re not recruiting their body in a way that could be as efficient as possible.

Lisa: It sounds like you work with people where they’re at in terms of if somebody doesn’t have the baseline that they need to be able to add weight to that squat, you’re going to work to get them there. Whereas, if somebody already can add a lot of weight or can do more explosive movements, you’re going to work with them in that capacity?

Kevin: Yeah, we try to find the weakest link in the chain and identify what that is – whether that be flexibility, mobility, strength, power – power output is not just the force that you produce, but the speed at which you produce that force. We’ve got to make sure that we identify what that weak link is and either strengthen the weaker athlete or add explosiveness to the – maybe the stronger athlete just doesn’t have the same explosive power output. Those are all components setting the foundation on how we proceed in program design and progression in terms of what movements they can do, what things we need to work on, what corrections we need to work on, and then make sure that we’re progressing those movements down the road as things get more and more challenging.

Lisa: Now, what workouts do you use actually to produce that explosive movement?

Kevin: Power is defined as moving any resistance as fast as you can --

Lisa: Okay.

Kevin: A lot of times when we think power exercises, we go right to powerlifting because powerlifting is an event, not an actual sport. Clean jerks, snatches, those types of movements can all be found under the power umbrella. At the same time, we can take a six or eight-pound medicine ball and focus on rotational power and get a similar result.

For people that play golf or play tennis, there’s no more than the weight of the racket or the weight of the club head that they’re swinging through, but they’re incredibly explosive athletes because they are producing force but more importantly, they’re producing speed. Force time velocity is the definition of power output, so you’ve got to pick and choose what your sport is, and what each position at that sport is, and then appropriately design a program that is going to help that particular athlete excel at their position in their sport.

Lisa: That makes sense. Now, what about something like Yoga in terms of strengthening and stretching as an adjunct to the more powerful moves?

Kevin: Yeah, that’s actually a critical component. When we have guys that are coming in focusing on those types of things. Even in the beginning of all of our workouts, we do a series called movement preparation where a lot of those movements are Yoga based. We just call it movement prep because it sounds cooler to an athlete.

Lisa: [LAUGHTER] It does sound cool. I’ve got to try that.

Kevin: Things like the world’s greatest stretch is basically a Yoga movement. On Wednesdays, we have a regen day – on Wednesdays and Sundays. It’s all about regeneration where we’re doing Yoga movements; we’re doing flexibility, we’re doing foam rolling – focused on to try to lengthen the muscle before we strengthen it. You want to try to loosen up the knots, take the knots out to create more length in the muscle. That will help with any areas where we’re applying too much force on a tendon where some tendonitis starts to creep in. Yoga is definitely a preventative tool for us to help focus on that flexibility, focus on regeneration.

We’ve got hot and cold tubs here where we do contrast baths that vasoconstrict and vasodilate at the capillary level to bring in all of the fresh Oxygen, nutrients, and everything the muscle needs to repair itself and flushes out all of the swelling and edema that was there from the damage of the workout. Every aspect and every component of trying to get the body to heal as quickly as possible is critical because we’ve got guys that are in here, working out, training six days a week – sometimes 22 hours a week and burning 22,000 calories. If you’re an --.

Lisa: Wow.

Kevin: Offensive lineman from Alabama. Their workload is very high.

Lisa: My IT bands get super tight, and – do you use a foam roller for things like that, as well?

Kevin: Yeah, they make Vibra Foam Rollers, too. We have Power Plates here that we actually recommend that our athletes roll out on the Power Plate.

Lisa: Oh, I should try that.

Kevin: The Power Plate will actually vibrate at any frequency you set it at. Vibration does a really good job at trying to untie the knots, so to speak, either in a muscle or a tendinous sheath like your IT band. There’s certain ways to roll through an IT band bump, right? I’m sure everybody has those lumps and bumps along – you basically need to find that knot, roll on it, and be on top of it, and just hold it there. Take a deep breath, exhale, and literally try to let the knot sink into the roller instead of rolling back and forth on it and letting the knot slip back and forth with the foam roller because you’re just going to irritate an already irritated muscle or area of the muscle. The other thing you could do --

Lisa: That’s what I’ve heard. It can hurt like hell, too, but it’s worth it [LAUGHTER].

Kevin: Oh, my God, it can be very painful.

Lisa: It’s so painful.

Kevin: Once you find that spot, and that’s why it’s hard to stay on it. The other thing – if you go one joint above and understand that the IT band originates with the TFL and the Glut Max, so there may be some tightness in your TFL or your Glut Max. Trying to roll those areas out, as well, might take the pressure off of the IT band and get some relief along that same side. That would be another bullet in the arsenal to try to relieve your pain from that. The IT band is great for preventing any injuries – it helps support the knee because it does cross the knee joint laterally – on the lateral side. Glut Max, TFL, IT band, crosses the knee, helps to support the knee and stabilize the knee, and helps hold it in place – also a big thing for ACL tears, as well. It’s nice to have that support along the knee.

Lisa: Now, Kevin, before we move to nutrition, is there anything you wanted to add about workouts?

Kevin: The conditioning side is pretty incredible. We’ve got a system – we actually use a system called My Zone where every player or athletes that comes in, we hook them up to this heart rate monitor. We’ve got a 60-inch flat screen out on our turf area, and literally, every athlete can see what their heart rate is at any given moment in the workout. The nice thing about that is when we do our conditioning sessions; each athlete will start when their heart rate starts dropping below 85%, which is typically where their anaerobic threshold is. As soon as they drop under 85%, we have them start up again, or they do their next sprint. That keeps them in an anaerobic zone, but it also allows them enough recovery time between sets to make sure that we’re maximizing – looking at the heart as a muscle and when it’s fatigued, it’s going to take a lot longer for that muscle to recover to get back down underneath of that anaerobic threshold.

What that helps us do is prevent over training. It helps us identify guys that may either be sleep deprived or have issues with – let’s say, some kind of medication or stress or things that are affecting or impacting their resting heart rate. As a coach, if I’ve got 20 or 30 guys on the field knowing during the warm up somebody’s heart rate is already over 80%, then something is going on with that athlete, so I know that I need to back off of the volume rather than just have a “pick at it” approach from a coaching standpoint to push a guy through something that he’s not ready to be pushed through something that he’s not ready to be pushed through and risking an injury in someone who may be an NFL athlete earning a half a million dollars a year in salary.

That’s the kind of approach we take with it because they’re only got six to eight weeks before they test for their – they go, and they do their body composition. They’re going through these seven drills – they’ve got to run a 40-yard dash, run a 5-10-5, do a three-cone drill, any one of those – bench 225 as many times as they can. They literally are poked and prodded like a – it’s like people buying horses at a horse race. It’s literally very similar to that. It’s looking for any reason not to pay a guy or not to hire a guy because they are spending a lot of money on these players.

Lisa: I bet. I just wanted to mention WhatsGoodbyVi.com. If you’re looking for expert health and fitness tips, you can trust, plus inspirational stories of mental and physical transformation, What’s Good is your new favorite spot online. On the road to becoming your best self, swing by WhatsGoodbyVi.com for some helpful pointers. All right, Kevin, let’s jump into nutrition. What are these gentlemen eating?

Kevin: One of the most important things that we do from a service side is to be able to provide a turn-key system for nutrition. There’s really two organizations that I lean on pretty heavily to provide that. Calorie counts are critical. Making sure that the right protein, carbohydrates, and fats that they’re getting are replenishing all of the calories necessary to make sure that they can recover as quickly as possible.

Icon Meals has been tremendous. They basically deliver their meals directly to us, and we just hand those out. The guys can order – on a menu of 20 meals, they’re getting lunch and dinner six days a week from us. We can sit with them and talk to them about calories, talk to them about breakdown, and literally educate them on a weekly basis on what they should be eating, how many calories they should be having. They all know exactly how many calories they’re burning because of their heart rate monitors. It also calculates calorie burn, average effort, all of that good stuff. They have an app that says – these are the calories that you’ve burned today, so we want to make sure that we’re replenishing those for the guys that are trying to gain weight, lose weight, lean out. Those are all real specific goals when we go through their evaluation, so that’s been great.

The product that we’ve used from a nutrition supplementation standpoint as been exclusively through Inner Armor. They’ve been great partners for us, but they’re all being substance free, they’re all third-party tested, and to me, there’s no greater important factor than making sure the supplements that these guys are taking are not going to cause a red flag at the NFL Combine and cause them to enter in through a drug program. With that much on the line, you need to have something that you believe in that isn’t going to risk their employment opportunity in the NFL. All of their products are not only third-party tested, but I've also asked them to go through another agency – through the NFL, that the NFLPA supports. It’s called AegisShield. Literally, you can go into any vitamin shop or any store out there and use their barcode scanner and scan the product, and there will be a nice, big, green checkmark on every Inner Armor product that is out there – meaning that it’s preapproved by the NFLPA.

Lisa: Oh, that’s awesome.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s an excellent resource for players and agents knowing that certain brands have taken that extra step to make sure that they’ve got what it takes – they’ve got some powerful products in there, but it’s not going to risk their career. But then we just look at – again, what their needs are. If someone’s trying to put weight on, we just calculate how many calories are in each one of the products. The Lean Mass Peak has been pretty tremendous – that’s our post-workout shake. They’ve got a 2 to 1 carb to protein ratio. We want to replenish all of the carbohydrates they’ve just burned through the workout.

The protein sources that have been amazing really across the board for not only our NFL players but also female athletes, soccer players, lacrosse players, field hockey players, they’ve loved it. It’s their new – Isolate Zero. It’s like a protein water with zero carbs, and twenty grams of protein, with 20 ounces of water.

Lisa: Oh, wow.

Kevin: Yeah, it literally tastes like Crystal Light.

Lisa: Oh, my gosh [LAUGHTER].

Kevin: And they’ve got some great flavors, and they mix it up. There are a lot of athletes that are out there – they’re trying to drink a gallon of water a day, and literally, this is water and protein. If you’re trying to hit your macronutrient goals and have enough protein, that doesn’t have that heavy shake consistency that can fill you up. All of our female athletes are loving this stuff. They sip it throughout the day, and they get the same protein that they need in an isolate form, which is one of the best whey proteins that are out there.

Lisa: Kevin, what was the name of this again? I want to get this. The drink you’re talking about?

Kevin: Yeah, it called Isolate Zero. Inner Armor developed it literally recently, just this year. It’s one of their newest products out. It’s an isolate whey. It’s a protein water. People have hydration goals throughout the day – our athletes do. I know they’re drinking a gallon a gallon to a gallon and a half of water a day depending on their weight, and size, and what their goals are. Hydration wise – they can literally kill two birds with one stone, hitting their hydration goals with 20 ounces of water for every 20 grams of protein.

That’s been a tremendous resource for us, not only our male athletes that are trying to hit their macronutrient goal with protein but also our female athletes – soccer players, field hockey players, lacrosse players. They can also hit their protein goal without going over on their carbohydrate goal. I know a lot of people fear carbohydrates because everybody’s trying to lean out. The reality is carbohydrates are protein sparing, and protein is a building block of muscle. We want to make sure that you are getting enough carbohydrates in post-workout. Throughout the rest of the day, are you – on your nutrition side, are you getting enough protein in?

And that seems to be – especially with female athletes because they fill up on those shakes. They just
feel the bloat. This Isolate Zero stuff is probably the greatest one of the greatest breakthroughs – I feel like – on the nutrition side because they can hit their protein goals without feeling that bloat.

Lisa: That’s fantastic. I’m so glad you mention women athletes because when I asked the question, I asked about the gentlemen because I had football on the brain. I would love for you to come back and just talk about women athletes, women’s needs, a woman’s protein, all that nutritional – because the time goes so fast. Before I let you go, I just want to ask you a couple of personal questions. What is your favorite exercise?

Kevin: Wow, favorite exercise? Probably the bench because I’m really good at it. I have short arms [LAUGHTER].

Lisa: I’m like an orangutan, I’m totally opposite.

Kevin: I’m more on the five-six side – five-seven, so I’m on the shorter side – I’ve got short arms, but I can bench. That, I’m pretty proud of.

Lisa: Cool. That’s awesome. Now, what’s the most important thing you do every day for optimum health?

Kevin: I think – nutritionally, I think it’s a big – it’s probably the most important thing you could do. As undervalued it is as a younger athlete because you feel like you can eat anything and you’re invincible, I think the older you get, the more you feel – you just feel the energy drain. You don’t have the same juice you had when you were in your 20s. I’m in my 40s now and have been in this industry for 20 years, so I can see how my own body has changed and how much more I respect the nutrition side of what we do. You cannot out-train a bad diet. You have to make sure that you’re eating the right things in order to see results from a body composition improvement. I think that’s probably the biggest goal that’s out there.

I think from a female athlete or women’s standpoint; resistance training is not going to turn you into a bodybuilder overnight. I think that’s something that’s a misconception. The type of training that you do from a resistance training standpoint will actually help increase your basal metabolic rate – you’re burning more calories at rest. Carbohydrates are good for you after a workout, so you can replenish that – so your body doesn’t break down the muscle that you just worked so hard to build. Repair and recovery are just as important, if not more important than the actual workout and the damage that you do. Those are all big, key components that I know from a nutrition standpoint – the longer that I’m in this industry, the more results I see when the nutrition side is really taken seriously and that many times more seriously than the actual workout.

Lisa: Oh, I agree. Now, the last question. What’s in your gym bag?

Kevin: What’s in my gym bag right now?

Lisa: Yeah.

Kevin: Underwear [LAUGHTER], socks. Let’s see, what else do I have in here? You’re talking like a travel bag for when I travel or what I take with me or --?

Lisa: No, just if you're going to the gym. Some people have a jump rope or water or maybe free weights, any of that kind of stuff.

Kevin: Oh, that stuff. Smelly T-shirt, probably a dirty diaper in there somewhere from my kids.

Lisa: You’ve had the best answer so far, Kevin. That’s awesome. We have to wrap up, so when you come back next time, we will dive into that. I want to talk about women athletes. I think that would be great. Kevin, in the meantime, tell us all the ways that we can learn more about you and all of your great work?

Kevin: Sure. We’re in New Jersey. We have a 24,000-square-foot facility that’s really state-of-the-art. We have everything you need under the sun. We’ve got physical therapy, sports psychology, chiropractics, Pilates, spin studio. We’re really doing everything we can to be a one-stop-shop for people. You can find our more information about us at www.TESTSportsClubs.com. You can also find out more about our football academy at TESTFootballAcademy.com. Our phone number is 732-271-1000.

Lisa: Fantastic, Kevin. I can’t wait to have you back on Talk Fitness Today. I want to thank everyone for listening. This is your source for all things fitness. Thank you, so much for listening. Follow us on Twitter at TalkHealthy2Day. Have a great day, and stay well.

[END OF RECORDING]
Length (mins) 26:06
Waiver Received No
Host Lisa Davis, MPH

5 Ways to Jump Start Your Beach Body Workout

It doesn't need to be summer for you to want to have a "beach body."

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File talk_fitness/tft002.mp3
Featured Speaker Kenta Seki, Celebrity Trainer
Guest Website Kenta Seki
Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/kenta.seki
Guest Twitter Account @KentaSeki
Guest Bio A celebrity fitness trainer based in Los Angeles, Kenta Seki is a protégé of fitness guru Jillian Michaels, and appears on the E! reality show, Just Jillian, which promotes him as the star of Michael’s streaming fitness company, FitFusion.

A familiar face to gym rats and fitness fanatics, Seki has appeared in more than 100 fitness DVDs, and has been appeared on TV, offering fitness and workout tips as well as featured in various publications, like Shape and Self magazines, showcasing his flawless physique and abs of steel.
Transcription 5 Ways to Jump Start Your Beach Body Workout with Kenta Seki

Lisa Davis (Host): Hi, I’m Lisa Davis – so excited you’re listening to Talk Fitness Today. Here we’ve got the hottest and best in everything fitness, and I am so excited to have the wonderful Kenta Seki on the program. He is a celebrity fitness trainer based in Las Angeles. He’s a protégé of fitness guru Jillian Michaels. He appears on the E! reality show “Just Jillian,” and he is fabulous. Kenta, how are you?

Kenta Seki (Guest): What’s up, Lisa?

Lisa: Great to have you on to talk about fitness. By the way, I Tweeted that you were coming on the show, and a friend of mine messaged me and said, “Oh, my God. The body on that guy. Woohoo!” [LAUGHTER]. I mean, seriously Kenta, you are gorgeous and in such great shape. It obviously takes a lot of work, and I’m sure, and dedication, which we’ll talk about. Our topic – I was about to say title – is Five Ways to Jumpstart your Beach Body Workout. All right, so let’s talk about this because it is hot. Give us some advice. What are some tips?

Kenta: Oh, gosh, well, of course, let’s start by exercising [LAUGHTER] if you’re not exercising already. That’s a great way to increase your metabolism, so make sure you’re doing a mixture of cardio and strength training. Whatever that means to you, there’s all different kinds of ways to do cardio and strength training, any type of resistance training, just as long as you’re being active and having a mixture of both of those. That’s always my first one, make sure you’re being active.

Number two, just make sure you’re working on that diet. Don’t be cheating. Make sure you're eating as much healthy food as possible. Things that I like to watch out for are just making sure you’re not eating too many bad carbs – all the white bread, white sugars, things like that. I also like to decrease the dairy just a little bit as well because it takes a little bit longer for your body to process. Those are the main things I like to focus on as far as food goes – a higher protein diet, less bad carb diet.

Lisa: It’s interesting, I had surgery about six weeks ago, and I have not been able to exercise, and tomorrow is the day -- and I know when this airs, I will already have been exercising for a few weeks. It’s been really tough. I’ve actually lost weight because I’ve been eating so clean.

Kenta: Everybody gives different percentages. Some people say 70 to 30% -- 80 to 20, whatever it is, it’s definitely a lot more about your diet than it ever is about your exercise. Make sure you’re first and foremost focusing on that diet and eating as much healthy food as possible.

Lisa: Number three, you’ve got, “Drink more water?”

Kenta: Oh, gosh, yes. Everybody needs to drink more water. It’s almost across the board, everybody’s not drinking enough, so I always recommend having a bottle with you. I’m that guy that’s always walking around carrying his water bottle because I need it and drink it probably too often now. Drink more water. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be water – I recommend green tea sometimes. Green tea is great because the added caffeine helps stimulate your metabolism. Coffee sometimes – two cups a day max is what I recommend. Definitely not as much sugar or carbonated drinks. That’s also what I recommend. Just water is always the best way to start. Drink as much as you can. What I like to say is look at your body weight in pounds and cut it in half. Let’s just say you weigh 120 pounds and you cut that in half, that’s 60. That’s how many fluid ounces of water I’d recommend that you drink a day, so that’s about eight cups a day, on average.

Lisa: That’s great. I’m on my second, and it’s still morning, so that’s good. I definitely need to up that. Now, we’re going back to the beginning when you were talking about the strength training, and there was the cardio – so what types of strength training do you recommend for what types of things? For example, if you want to build muscle, versus you want to build flexibility, versus you want to build strength and flexibility, body weight exercise versus weight training – talk to us about this.

Kenta: All of the above. Definitely, if you can get in some Yoga if you can get in some Pilates, and you can get in some boxing – just mix and match. Often if you stick to just one type of exercise regimen, that’s when you end up plateauing, or you’re getting bored, or you could end up getting injured because maybe you’re avoiding some other body part or some type of modalities that are really important for your body.

If you can, even if it’s just once a week, throw in something different, just so that you keep your body guessing and that you keep getting different types of results. I love Yoga. I get in some Yoga as often as I can. I’ve been doing it since I was nine. If people can get in a little bit of Yoga, even if it’s just a few minutes a week, that could definitely help. This week, just to change it up, I’m actually starting to try a little bit of boxing. I miss boxing, so I’ve been trying it, and I forget how fun it can be. The Stairmaster – get off the treadmill, try the things that challenge you. That’s always the thing that I see people say, “Oh, I don’t like to do that because it’s too hard.” Generally, things that are really hard are the ones that get the best results. I’d say try different things especially if they’re challenging for you.

Lisa: That is good advice. All right, so we’ve got increasing your metabolism through cardio and strength training, changing your diet, drinking more water, doing workouts you enjoy, right? You talked about that – switching it up. You’ve got to prevent boredom. And then you also hear about plateaus, right? If you’re always doing the same thing, you’re like, why aren’t I getting any stronger or losing any weight?

Kenta: Yeah, exactly. Changing things up is the best way to prevent plateaus. If you’re sticking to one thing, a lot of times your body – it’s healthy and natural for it to adapt. That’s not a bad thing. It means your body is healthy, but if you want to prevent that from happening, especially from it happening soon,
keep your body guessing by doing different things. And once again, doing things that will really challenge you. Always change it up.

Lisa: I have to say, I loved your most importantly – when I’d asked you to tell me about some of this – about the five ways to jumpstart the beach body workout – “love yourself, love your body as it’s varying phases of transformation, don’t compare yourself to celebrities in magazines or people in your gym. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect.” That is right on, Kenta. I love that.

Kenta: Oh, thank you. It’s true. It’s totally fine and healthy to have body goals and aspirations and see people that you look up to, but I just don’t want people to become depressed about that if they’re not there yet. It’s totally fine to have those goals, but just realize you’re still human, and you’re beautiful and have so many other benefits and amazing things about you and qualities about you rather than just your physical body. Yes, keep striving to be as healthy as possible, and to get your body to look as good as you want it to, but at the same time, don’t let that bring you down. Stay positive. Fitness is a journey. It’s always a journey, and you just have to stay positive the whole way and love yourself the whole way because that’s what it’s all about.

Lisa: That is so true. And I think that, again, accepting where your body is – and maybe you’re not meant to be skinny. I don’t think skinny is that healthy anyway unless you’re meant to be that way, right? I think it’s about being fit, about being strong, about feeling good in your skin, about being able to do the activities that you love. Now, on Talk Fitness Today, there will be lots of shows where we’re really focusing on building muscle. People who are already in the mix and who are already working out, but I think for people who are new to it, or they just want to get a little fitter, I think what you’re saying makes total sense. But even if you are trying to get bulkier, you still have to love yourself, right? Now, talk to us about your routine because like I mentioned in the beginning, you are amazing, and your muscles are beautiful. What do you do, Kenta? Take us through some of workout days.

Kenta: Well, thank you. It’s really always been a challenge for me to maintain any size because my genetics are much skinnier than what I’m really at. On top of that, I’m also a vegetarian, so it’s very hard for me to gain weight and also to maintain the muscle. I have to make sure I’m always taking my supplements. I have to make sure I’m always taking in a minimum calorie count per day. That was really the thing that changed it all for me, was finding out how many calories I need to be taking in a day. I found out I wasn’t eating enough. What I did was I wore one of those body trackers that found out how active you’re being a day or how many steps you’re taking a day, and I found out I was burning way more calories than I thought just from my active lifestyle. In order to gain weight, you have to be eating more than you’re burning, so I found out I need to be eating at least a thousand extra calories a day. For me, that just means a lot of extra shakes, a lot of extra protein, and just making sure that my calorie intake is balanced between my carbs, sugars, and fats – carbs, proteins, and fats.

Lisa: I’d love to have you back to have you talk about strength training and being a vegetarian. There’s a whole lot there. We’re definitely going to have to talk about that. Now, when you said supplements earlier – let’s talk about this because I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions now that I ask every guest. Let’s start with supplements – you brought it up. I would have brought it up because I think it’s important. What do you take?

Kenta: I’ve been taking multivitamins since the 7th grade.

Lisa: How cool [LAUGHTER].

Kenta: Yeah, since I was a kid I always – that’s why I became a vegetarian. I was thinking about just making sure I have my vitamins and minerals. I think a lot of people take a daily multivitamin, but it’s important to make sure that your multivitamin includes minerals, as well. You want to have your calcium and potassium and everything else in there as well, not just your vitamins A through D. Vitamins and minerals – I make sure I take that every day.

Let’s see, I take an extra iron just because as a vegetarian there’s not always a lot of iron in multivitamins, so you need to take an additional iron supplement, so I’ve always taken that. What else do I take? I take my BCAAs every day – Branched Chain Amino Acids – it just helps your muscles recover and function more properly because I do a lot of heavy lifting. I take that – it has some glutamine in it – I really take a lot of supplements, just in case. I’m always the kind of guy – you’re better off, why not? Especially if you’re taking good brands and making sure they’re from a healthy source and a pure source. Glutamine to help my muscles recover. I take probiotics just for your gut health and digestive function.

Lisa: Yeah, so important.

Kenta: Let’s see, what else do I take? I take my daily protein shake.

Lisa: Do you use a rice protein or pea protein? What do you use since you’re vegetarian?

Kenta: Well, I’m vegetarian, not vegan. I still do use whey.

Lisa: Oh, okay, yes.

Kenta: Oh my gosh. I was vegan for a full year, and that was so hard to maintain my weight during that time. God bless anyone that’s doing that. I know the struggle. Whenever I can, if there’s something that’s going on – protein that is non-whey, I go for it, but I prefer whey protein as my daily shake just because it’s shown the best results with my body. I do that about one to two a day. It’s a mass gainer shake, so they’re actually about 600 calories each shake, and that’s before I add any peanut butter, or fruit, or bananas, or anything like that to the actual shake. If I do one or two of those that’s at least 1500 calories extra a day, just from my shake, which is definitely what I need for my size.

Lisa: How many hours a day do you work out?

Kenta: Let’s see, on a good week, I go six days a week between an hour to an hour and a half – that’s my personal workout, not factoring in any classes I teach, or clients I’m training, or just any other general activity. My actual workouts themselves are an hour to an hour and a half. And then, sometimes I like to throw in a class, so maybe I’ll get an extra hour to an hour and a half of Yoga in there, kickboxing, stuff like that.

Lisa: And what’s your backstory? How did you get into fitness?

Kenta: Oh, wow, I’ve been into fitness since I was a kid. I got into Yoga when I was nine-years-old. My sister was doing Yoga, and I decided it looked really cool, and I just started practicing it with her. Not thinking about it, I started going to studios, practicing at studios, and – actually, one of my friends was teaching at a studio when I was about 16-years-old. She went on vacation last minute and was like, “I can’t go. Kenta, can you sub for me?” And I was like, “Well, I’m only 16, but okay.” I ended up subbing a Yoga class at 16, and I got really into it. I made it my senior project in high school -- was Yoga.

I started teaching it right out of high school, and from there, when you start doing Yoga classes, people start asking for private sessions. I started doing private Yoga sessions. I slowly started adding in dumbbells and balls, and before you knew it, I got certified as a personal trainer as well. I started doing personal training, and I was introduced to Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser, at the time. I was featured in some of her DVDs. She and I just hit it off really well. I’m still working with her to this day. It’s been over five years. I’ve been on so many of her DVDs, and I’ve been in a total of over a hundred different DVDs from different companies. I’ve been in a bunch of magazines, TV shows, so it’s been an awesome experience. It really has, and it’s still going.

Lisa: It sounds like it. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given in terms of health and fitness?

Kenta: Oh, wow. Enjoy the journey, not just end result. There’s always ups and downs, and if you’re waiting for that end goal, you’re never going to be happy because it’s going to take – it’s always a journey. You may think you have it, but then something always inevitably comes up, and you may slip a little bit. You can’t let that bring you down. Still, remember that the entire journey of fitness is a process. It takes time, and you’re going to have ups and downs, and it’s going to be totally fine. Again, that’s why I’m all about just loving yourself because if you don’t then it’s just always going to be – it can be a really bad feeling. You don’t want fitness to be a bad thing in your life. Enjoy it and embrace it, and understand that there’s going to be ups and downs.

Lisa: If you’re looking for expert health and fitness tips you can trust, plus inspirational stories of mental and physical transformation, “What’s Good” is your new favorite spot online. On the road to becoming your best self, swing by WhatsGoodByVi.com for some helpful pointers. Okay, let’s get to our next question. What would you tell your younger self when you were first getting into fitness? I have a feeling it might be what you just talked about, but I don’t want to be presumptuous – about enjoying the journey, and not being too hard on yourself.

Kenta: Yeah, that really would be what I would say, is honestly just enjoy the journey and don’t be constantly just focusing on the end result. Again, enjoy every day, every day at the gym, every rep you’re doing. Enjoy the process.

Lisa: What was a turning point to take you to the next level? You had taught Yoga, you became a trainer, but then was it meeting Jillian or was it there was something in yourself? What brought you to that level?

Kenta: When I had heard from Jillian, and I had her people reach out to me asking me to be on her DVD, I was shocked at first because I always assumed fitness models are these shredded, ripped, perfect bodies. At the time, that’s just not where I thought I was. And then afterward, when I got in the industry, and I started to meet more people and understand how the industry works, I was like, “Actually, I’m not that bad” [LAUGHTER]. My body’s actually a lot better than I thought it was. I’m able to maintain it a lot more than I thought.

It’s more than just the physicality of it. It’s also how you are as a person and what you’re capable of doing -- and your form, your creativity – there’s so many other qualities to it, so I think it was just understanding that I’m more than my body and I have other qualities to bring to the table. When I embrace that, that’s when I really was able to go a little bit further with my career because I had more confidence in myself. Again, it comes right back to loving yourself. That’s when I really started to understand --

Lisa: I really like that.

Kenta: Yeah, that’s when I really started to understand what I was capable of doing and how far I could go.

Lisa: All right, Kenta, what’s in your gym bag?

Kenta: I always have my water. I always have that big – I have a Swell Bottle as in my big bottle of water in there. I always have a towel. I always have gliders just in case I want to do something different with my workout. They’re the easiest little things to throw in there to maybe slip into your workout. I have a jump rope –

Lisa: What is that – for people who aren’t familiar, what’s a glider?

Kenta: Gliders are just like little disks that you can slide around on the floor with.

Lisa: Oh, cool.

Kenta: You can use them on carpet or hardwood floors, and you can do anything from lunges to abs to squats -- any type of total body weight exercise on them. They’re a lot of fun. If you don’t have just the gliding disks themselves, you can use a paper plate on a carpet, or a towel on the floor just to slide around. It adds a different level of resistance, and it changes up your workout. I always have gliders. I always have a jump rope. It depends on where I’m going, but I always have bars. Oh, my gosh, yeah, of course. And I always need food, because you never know when you’re going just to need to throw something in your body. Every two to three hours I try to have something, so I always have something to eat.

Lisa: What are your favorite bars?

Kenta: I need – I like things that are organic or as healthy as possible, so just as pure ingredients as possible. I always look on the back and the less ingredients, the better because that way it’s much less processed. You can trust the ingredients. Generally, anything with nuts. I love a lot of nuts in them because it’s a higher protein count for me. Yeah, any type of bar, really. If I can, I like to get my hands on a really heavy calorie bar, too. If I can find one that’s 300 calories or more, I’ll take it. That’s for my goal [LAUGHTER].

Lisa: Oh, that’s a – yes.

Kenta: Definitely for my clients and other people I always recommend 150 or less in their bars. Always, a general rule of thumb, the less ingredients, the better and the more organic, the better.

Lisa: Yeah, I agree. If you could share just one more thing with the audience, what would it be?

Kenta: Take time sometimes, and just breathe. Slow down. Don’t be in such a rush. If you can, download a meditation app, or just take some time to just – whenever you can, sit down, close your eyes, breathe in and out through your nose. Calm yourself so that you can jump back into life with more zest and excitement and don’t be taking things too seriously. That applies to everything, especially in fitness and self-love.

Lisa: Oh, that’s fantastic. This has been so much fun. I love having you on. We’ve spoken before. Kenta, you’re such a good role model. Actually, I’m going to ask you one more question. What is your primary motivation?

Kenta: As a trainer or for myself?

Lisa: Yeah, for staying in shape and as a trainer – both.

Kenta: Well, as a trainer, my primary form of motivation is to pass on anything positive to other people. Whatever I’ve learned as a trainer – and there’s a lot of things – I try to get the most positive things that can help make the process easier and better for other people and just push that on to them. At least that way, I can help make the world a better place. I genuinely do mean that. I’ve seen how great fitness can be when it’s used right and when it’s done healthily. If I can help other people with that, I am all for it, so that’s in that sense.

And then, for myself, my primary motivation again, is just to be happy with myself as well. Again, it’s always a journey. There’s always different things to learn and different things to do and the more experience I get, the better I can be for myself so that I can be better for others.

Lisa: That’s awesome, Kenta. Tell us all the ways we can find you on social media.

Kenta: My biggest following is on Instagram. You can find me at Kenta Seki. You can find me on Facebook or Twitter, or my website, KentaSeki.com. If you want to work out with me, you can follow me on Fit Fusion. Fit Fusion is an app by Jillian Michaels. It’s on AppleTV. It’s also on Amazon, and it’s partnered with AT&T U-Verse and a bunch of other major companies. I have two workouts on there that you can follow along with me. That’s FitFusion.com.

Lisa: Oh, okay. I have got to check that out for sure. And I have Tweeted many of your little videos, and it’s really, really great. You do some really, really cool stuff with those weights and body weight exercises – all kinds of fun stuff to see. I want to thank everyone for listening to Talk Fitness Today. I’m having a blast. I hope you are too. Take what you learned, put it into action. Check us out on Twitter at TalkHealthy2Day. Thanks, so much, and stay well.

[END OF RECORDING]
Length (mins) 22:37
Waiver Received No
Host Lisa Davis, MPH

Gender Differences in Strength Training

Do women and men need to train differently when it comes to building strength?

Additional Info

Segment Number 1
Audio File talk_fitness/tft001.mp3
Featured Speaker Lee Boyce, Strength Coach
Guest Website Lee Boyce Training
Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/coachleeboyce
Guest Twitter Account @coachleeboyce
Guest Bio Lee Boyce is a strength coach, professional writer and speaker based in Toronto, Ontario.

His work has been featured in many of the largest magazines in the world and he regularly appears on TV and Radio to talk fitness.
Transcription Gender Differences in Strength Training with Lee Boyce

Lisa Davis (Host): Hi, I’m Lisa Davis. You’ve probably heard me on, Talk Healthy Today. Well, now we’ve got Talk Fitness, Today. We want to get fit. We want to get pumped. We want to get strong. We want to feel good. We want our bodies to work well. We want to look good. There’s so many great things about fitness, and we’re going to be covering them all, as a matter of fact. We have a fantastic show today. We’ve got Lee Boyce. He’s a strength coach, professional writer, and speaker based in Toronto, Ontario. His work has been featured in many of the largest magazines in the world, and he regularly appears on TV and radio to talk fitness. So psyched he’s here. Hello, Lee. Welcome to, “Talk Fitness, Today.”

Lee Boyce (Guest): Hi, thank you.

Lisa: It’s great to have you on. All right, so let’s talk about gender differences in strength training because I’ve heard from women – and I bet you’ve heard this too – “Oh, I don’t want to lift weights because I’m going to get really bulky.” Well, let me tell you, I am five-ten, and I am pretty lean, and I lift weights, and I’m not bulky, so that’s it. I guess that’s the end of the show, right? No, I’m just joking [LAUGHTER].

Anyway, let’s talk about this. What have you heard from women, and what do we need to keep in mind when we’re talking about gender differences in strength training?

Lee: There’s a lot of stuff that -- social stigma reinforces these ideas of thinking without really looking into it a little bit further. It’s good to actually get in touch with some kind of experts or expert sources where you can learn the truth about it. The truth is that yes, what I do hear is that there’s a lot of women who do often say to me as a trainer, and so on, “I don’t want to get too big. I don’t want to get bulky. I don’t want to lift heavier weights or anything like that.” It’s usually an area that causes a little bit of fear and trepidation for people so that they gravitate toward cardio, and they gravitate toward really, really light weights if they touch weight at all. It is something that definitely needs to be addressed. The truth of the matter is even though there are some differences training-wise between weightlifting men and weightlifting women, at its very core there’s nothing to be afraid of. There’s no reason why the two can’t train pretty much the same in the general standpoint.

Lisa: Well, that is good to know. One of the things that I love to do is Pilates, and I do an intermediate Pilates, so you can actually put more resistance. When we’re talking about strength training, it’s not necessarily weights; it can be – I’m asking you – like Pilates, or body weight exercises, or even Yoga that can be very intense, or those resistant bands? Do you count that as well, as strength training?

Lee: Well, you see, strength training in the sense of it being training with resistance and making muscles work against resistance? Yes, all of those things that you listed there--

Lisa: Yes.

Lee: Definitely do fall under that category. When it comes to training strength in the absolute sense, meaning we’re actually making increases in our top end-strength, and our real contractile force, and so on, it’s going to get kind of difficult to get away from just traditional barbell and dumbbell – just traditional weight training methods just because of the fact that when we want to get the intensity – meaning the weight lifted up to a certain point -- we’re going to have to use stuff that’s heavy enough. A lot of times resistance bands or Pilates might not cut it. Body weight might not cut it either. It does limit your options in terms of just how far you can take it and really train that and hone in on your top end-strength. But, resistance training – it’s funny that you say that because it does take on several different forms, and all of a sudden lifting 20 pounds in the form of a dumbbell can take on a different mental approach – it can apply itself differently in the mind of a woman versus lifting 20 pounds equivalent in resistance with a band. All right, so --

Lisa: Yeah, that’s a good point.

Lee: It is very, very interesting.

Lisa: Now, it might – for example, if a woman like me who’s been doing something that is resistance training and wants to go to weights, it might not be as far as a leap because you just gave that great example. And so maybe that will help with the resistance. What about women who really aren’t active at all, and they want to start a weight training program using free weights? What’s the best way to go about that?

Lee: I would say that the best way to go about it is to start in the most general sense rather than going too specific or going too advanced with your programming. A lot of times -- there’s a lot of experts who will give out information, or write books, or whatever, on topics of weight training. All of the information is very credible and very good, but it might cater to an audience that is outside of your particular realm of capability at this time.

The real order of the day for a lot of beginners has to be on developing foundation based strength, or really, foundational – just beginning level strength, which means that you might want to focus on very simplistic lists to do that like working with perfecting your squat pattern and your hinge pattern – which would be like the deadlift – and your overhead press. Just getting the basic, fundamental, primal movement patterns, and getting those ingrained and just set in stone so that you can then start making progressions from there. Starting light is also a good idea, too. You don’t want to overdo it before you just get the form right.

Lisa: When I ask this for women, it sounds like it’s the same answer for men?

Lee: It is. It’s 100% the same. That’s what I said at the outset, is the fact that, at its core, we can really train exactly the same way, women and men. There’s nothing to be afraid of at all. The same protocol with all of my clients – I use exactly the same protocol, and I start making modifications based on the individual.

Lisa: Now, what about machines versus free weights?

Lee: Again, it’s tailored toward two things. First of all, the intermediacy of the client, and second of all, what the client’s particular goals are. Those are the two things that I examine before I prescribe machines versus – a highly-isolated machine versus something like a compound movement that I listed a little bit earlier on. If your goals are a little bit more cosmetic, and you have aesthetic based goals where you want to maybe develop a certain area of your body a little bit more than another area of the body, it might benefit for you to use an isolation machine, like, for example, a prone hamstring curl machine, or a pec deck fly machine or something like that where it really zeroes in on the muscle in question. In the general sense, though, those isolated machines might have a little bit of a disadvantage to them, too. For example, the fact that using vital stabilizing muscles might be out of the picture for that because they’re coming along for the ride since you’re on a track now.

Lisa: I see.

Lee: Versus using free weights where you’re in the situation where you do have to use your stabilizers – you’re doing compound exercises that involve multiple joints, and all of that as a byproduct will mean – it will mean that the byproduct will be you’re burning a little bit more calories. You’re increasing your metabolic demand, and you might be shedding more body fat or potentiating more shed body fat. All of those things, for a lot of people, that might be the general goal is to get in better conditioning, better shape in the sense of dropping body fat, losing weight, and so on. In that case, it might be a better idea for you to go for the compound movements and dropping out of the machines, or not having too many of them implemented into your program.

It’s also just a very good training tool in general just from the learning standpoint to know the compound lifts pretty well and be able to stabilize a lot of your own movements that are involving multiple joints before you go into the isolation style training. There’s a pro and con for both methods. I don’t deny or not advocate one. It’s very situation-based.

Lisa: All right, that makes sense. What I’m thinking is if you’re doing just the machines then you’re probably going to end up – let’s say you want really big biceps. What’s going to happen to your triceps? They’re going to be out of balance, and I think that’s what you’re getting at, right -- with the compound exercises? If you could break that down a little bit more for people, who aren’t sure what that exactly means?

Lee: Yeah, so, first of all, let’s say -- your point of getting out of balance. There’s a lot more thinking you have to do with the isolation machines if you do want to find and promote that balance just based on the size of the muscles, and so on -- if you want to do a two-to-one ratio between a back machine exercise versus a chest machine exercise, and so on. You do have to think about a little bit more when you’re isolating like that.

On the subject of compound movements, once again, it’s multiple joints that are active at the same time. An exercise like a squat is a good example of a compound movement because you have movement at the knee, movement at the hip. You have the bar on your back or on your shoulders. This is an exercise that involves many, many muscles at the same time, and therefore it falls under that category of compound. Compared to the biceps example you said before – like a bicep curl or a preacher curl – that’s one joint that’s active, and it’s just moving in a hinge pattern. You’re only going to hit one muscle or one or two muscles at most. So yes, there’s a big difference between a compound and the single-joint isolation exercises, and it’s something that’s worth knowing about.

Lisa: Yeah, it definitely is. I would recommend that people work with a trainer. Do they hire a personal trainer, or can they work with a trainer that works for the gym? What do you recommend for someone, especially if they’re nervous or new and concerned about injury prevention? And about staying balanced or getting balanced?

Lee: Yeah, 100% working with a professional – working with a trainer. I would always advocate that before anything else. There’s obviously going to be a few things to look out for in terms of what the capabilities of the trainer are because of the fact that – just like any injury, there’s going to be people who are stronger and people who are weaker from a skill level perspective. There is going to be some professionals who are a little bit better or more experienced or just more adept at their job, and there’s going to be people who aren’t.

Taking the time to sit back, maybe even doing a little bit of research into just what basic training should be like, and so on, it’s going to be a good way for you to gauge who is a stronger trainer and who’s not. What are their professionalism levels like on the gym floor when you see them and when you observe them? How are they cuing you? Are they very hands-on? Are they very descriptive with the things that they have to say to help you understand about your body and about the exercise and the movements? These are things to ask yourself when you’re looking at hiring a trainer, but I will always recommend working with a professional if you do not know what you’re doing in the gym because it’s only going to help you A, stay safe, and B, reach your goals much more attainably and sustainably.

Lisa: I’d love to know from you, what was the turning point for you to take your health and your fitness to the next level? What encouraged you to help others?

Lee: It goes back a long way, to be honest with you. I was always the kid who was into sports, and I played a lot of sports when I was in school. In high school, I played on a bunch of different sports teams as well. When I found out that kinesiology was a high school course I could actually try out in my senior year; I thought, “Hey, this is what I like to do. Plus, it’s an academic course like Phys Ed, but in class. That’s really cool.” I took the course, and I liked it so much I took it another time. After I did really well in it the first time, I liked it again.

With that said, I followed that into University, and I ran track in University, as well. It just went hand in hand with one another, and it was coming to the junction – this point in time where I was like, okay, if I want to start working, what do I want to do? Do I want to work with people in a clinical setting, maybe try to become a Physio or a Chiro and follow that path? I thought to myself, and I said, “You know what? In light of the fact that I’ve dealt with injuries myself and I know what that feels like, I’d rather work with people to be healthy and stay healthy, and not work with injured people. If I can prevent it before it happens, even better.” It was the choice between working with injured people and working with healthy people and trying to keep them out of the injury zone. That’s why I chose the direction that I went in terms of being a trainer and coaching clients and athletes to just get stronger, and be fit, and be healthy.

Lisa: It’s funny because I was thinking of going into physical therapy or occupational therapy, and then I ended up getting my Master’s in Public Health. I think I also wanted to work with prevention. Let’s teach people how to be healthy. Let’s do things that are going to help them before the issue happens, so I think that make so much sense. Now, is there somebody that you really admire in the health and fitness industry that also went, “You know what? I really look up to this person, and I want to do the type of work that they’re doing,” or is it just something within yourself? Or both?

Lee: I look up to a whole lot of people in the industry, to be honest with you. Especially being a writer in the industry, all of the people who I read from first to be anywhere near the same platforms that they are on just to be in that arena is quite the honor. I could list you dozens of people that I’ve learned from by getting my start, in the first five years especially, of me developing as a trainer. People like Mike Robertson or Chad Waterbury, Charles Poliquin, had a lot of good information as well -- Mark Richter. I can literally list a couple dozen people right off the top of the head that were extremely influential, even -- many of whom I haven’t even met before -- in order to really, really up my training game from the things that I read and the things that I took to the gym, and apply not only with my own training but with training my clients, too. It really helped, and likewise, it helped me as a writer, as well in terms of just their actual technical skill of writing in how they got their points across, and how comprehensive their articles and their books were.

Lisa: What are some of your favorite ways to train?

Lee: I’ve gone through a few different methods, but I guess I’d have to say just general hypertrophy -- like the old-school bodybuilding style -- is probably my favorite way to train for a couple of reasons. I am a stickler for strength. I really like training the heavy three-rep-max category, as well. I really like that a lot. The thing is, is that it’s just stressful on your nervous system, and it’s stressful on the body. There’s nothing that anyone can do to get away from that one aspect of it. For that reason, if you’re not 100% on point in other aspects of your life like sleep, and nutrition, and so on, you can really get hurt. You can get injured. All of a sudden, you tweak a muscle or something in your spine doesn’t feel too right and all of a sudden, it’s really putting you off.

The hypertrophy training, where you’re in that eight-rep range to maybe twelve reps, or eight reps to fifteen reps -- or you’re doing supersets or compound sets, and different ways to extend your sets or manipulate your repetitions to make them really burn, these are methods that – you’re using less weight, and so the load that you’re dealing with – even though you’re doing more repetitions with it, the load that you’re dealing with is something your body can handle a little bit better. It also has a doubling effect in the fact that you’re really kicking into your conditioning, as well. Doing a set of two, then three, then five, then ten squats as a giant set of twenty with these little breaks in between. You’re going to be breathing heavy for the rest of the day after you do stuff like that [LAUGHTER] compared to doing heavy sets of two or three repetitions.

At the end of the day you’re going to get a little bit more in terms of just general health, I’d say, training for more of a hypertrophy method of training or training for a little bit more of a body-building style – and I use the term loosely, but using a bodybuilding style of training because it will attack your conditioning a lot more effectively.

Lisa: That’s great. Now, what would you say is the most important thing you do every day for optimum health?

Lee: I would say probably focus on a little bit of mobility work. I’m definitely not the walking, talking example of being the healthiest person in terms of diet, or the healthiest person in terms of making sure that I get every workout in every day scheduled. I’m not a great example of that at all, to be honest with you. Whether it’s a setback, or whether it’s negligence, or just being busy, or whether it’s just having cravings, or whatever it is. So no, I’m not the best example of that.

One thing that I do try to do is a little bit of mobility work daily, even if that means just doing some body weight deep squatting and doing some thoracic mobility stuff, maybe even a little bit of foam rolling to take a look at your tissue quality, and so on. These are things that will just help keep your mobility and keep your joints doing what they’re supposed to do. I’m a pretty big guy, so with a lot of muscle mass on your body, it’s easy to start getting tight and start losing range-of-motion, especially if you’re really promoting exactly that when you’re in the gym training heavy or lifting for bodybuilding. Stuff to build more muscle.

At the end of the day, it’s that mobility work and making sure that your shoulders and your hips have that full range, and that your muscles have that elasticity. It’s really, really important, especially as people get older and older.

Lisa: Now, do you take daily supplements and vitamins, and do you have any that are your go-to?

Lee: I’m not a supplement guy, to be honest with you. I’m not. I have a lot of friends who are really, really big into it. Part of the reason is just lack of discipline in that department. I’m not going to lie. But another thing about it is the fact that there’s a lot of conflicting views on supplements and the use of many of them. I think that a couple are probably pretty good, like using fish oils, for example, and your omega’s, and so on.

Generally, I just try – when I’m good – to try to eat good, balanced meals, get your macronutrients in on point, have adequate amounts of protein, limit the amounts of starchy carbohydrates, and so on, and just really – get your green vegetables in, and so on. These are all good ideas, just starting from a basic level like that because I think that a lot of people complicate things prematurely. Just like how we were talking about with weight training, and how people might skip ahead two steps and get a program that’s more advanced than their actual level of capabilities, people go that way with food, as well. Often times, whereas they could just make a simple tweak to their diet, or focus on eating in a timely fashion, eating whole foods, and eating proper food groups, and so on, and how that’s going to enhance their training, all of a sudden, people are gravitating towards a lot of supplements and a lot of externals. It might not be the best way to bridge the gap.

Lisa: Yeah, I hear you. I think it’s so important to focus on the whole foods, and if people like to supplement and take vitamins, I think that’s great, as well. But I think you have to make the food the real deal, right? And it’s got to be whole food. It’s got to be real food, not fake food. What’s in your gym bag? Anything interesting in there? [LAUGHTER].

Lee: I’m actually looking at it right now. In my gym bag, let’s see. I have a couple of bands. I have a couple of ab wheels, as well. It’s pretty cool. I have the – you know the classic ab wheel where you hold on to the double handle, and it’s one wheel? I have one where it’s two individual wheels, and they’re on pivots – they’re on bearings, so you can actually move your hands outwards or towards each other, and so on. It’s pretty good.

Lisa: Oh, that’s cool.

Lee: I have that. I’ve got a pair of boxing gloves for a lot of conditioning stuff that I’ve been doing over the course of the spring and over the winter. I’ve been doing a little bit of boxing. I have TRX in my gym bag, as well.

Lisa: I love TRX.

Lee: Yeah, some suspension training. I’ve got a pair of Olympic lifting shoes, as well, so that I have a pair of shoes to change into if I wanted to squat or do the Olympic lift. A good little purchase there. Other than that, I have a Lacrosse ball, just for some self-myofascial release and some tissue release. I have a little bit of a larger Lacrosse ball for areas of the bigger surface area, and my foam roller is there, as well, which usually doesn’t fit because of all of the other stuff.

Lisa: Okay, how huge is this bag? I’m thinking you don’t even need to lift weights; you can just do curls with this bag [LAUGHTER]. It sounds – can you fit it in your car?

Lee: The bag is deceiving because it’s like a medium-size or a small-size bag, but it seems bottomless with all the stuff that I can throw in there.

Lisa: It makes me think of, “The Cat and the Hat Knows a Lot About That,” on PBS Kids. And yes, my daughter is 12, but we used to watch it when she was young, and the cat can pull a million things out of his hat, right? I’m picturing you pulling all of these things – what was the thing you mentioned again, with the wheel, and where do you get that? What is that? Tell us that again. You said it has the two-sided thing?

Lee: It’s just a pair of -- I think they're called Core Wheels if I’m not mistaken. They’re called Core Wheels, and they honestly look like a pair of rollerblade wheels in a way, that are attached by a -- two wheels on either side attached by handles. They look like dumbbells except the ends are wheels instead of the ends being weights, right? You just have a pair of them, and they attach with bearings, and you can just roll with them, like being able to roll a pair of dumbbells – like a pair of ten-pound or five-pound dumbbells -- except they’re less than a half a pound each.

They’re perfect for just multidirectional ab-rollout movements. They create a great challenge that a lot of times the ab wheel itself – the standard ab wheel could be a little bit more demanding, or could be a little bit harder to work with. When you do have two wheels, you can keep one hand planted straight under your body and roll out with the other hand. And so then, all of a sudden, you have a little bit of a way to bridge the gap to make something a little bit easier for you when you do a rollout. I really like that tool. It’s a really good buy, and they're not too expensive. Core Wheels, I’m not too sure of a website or anything like that. I didn’t think I’d be plugging them right now, but they weren’t expensive [LAUGHTER]. They were probably like 20 or 30 dollars, as well, so that’s pretty good.

Lisa: It sounds cool. Lee, you’re awesome, and you have such great information. I’m so thrilled that you came on today because I think the more we can learn, we can work out, we can be stronger, we can look better and feel better. It’s so important – do you have any last thoughts about gender differences between men and women when it comes to strength training?

Lee: I would tell women to not be afraid of hypertrophy training either. That would be the number one thing that I’d have to say is that women shouldn’t be afraid of training for added muscle or training to build muscle. Again, it’s not an unsafe way to train. It’s probably one of the safest methods of weight training if you ask me, and it’s still going to – number two is that mass gains and building mass as a woman is not – physiologically, studies have shown that it’s not quite as fast a process for women to build muscle and develop themselves as a man does. For that reason, it’s even more important that a woman focuses on actually building a little bit of muscle because it’s going to help correct their frames. It’s going to help improve posture, and it’s going to help just sustain healthy joints, as well, and avoid injury in the process. It’s a really, really good thing to look into and consider doing.

Lisa: Well, Lee, this has been fantastic. Tell us all of the ways we can learn more about you and all of the great work you’re doing?

Lee: I have a website, LeeBoyceTraining.com, and I also can be found on Facebook. The Facebook handle is CoachLeeBoyce, and Twitter also has the same handle, it’s CoachLeeBoyce. I’m usually on those three forms of social media, and so all of the articles that I write, which I publish very, very often, they are always funneled to all three of those different places. Usually, the first one that it gets loaded up on to is Facebook, and then Twitter, and then it will come up onto my website, as well.

On my website is also an active blog where I usually cover a different counterintuitive topic about things that I see in the industry that might not be directly training related but affecting its culture as a whole and the socio-cultural perspectives of fitness. It’s a really good way of looking at things from a different perspective and outside the box, and so on, and it’s a pretty editorial commentary.

Lisa: Well, Lee, I definitely want to have you back. There’s so much to talk about. I want to thank everybody, so much, for listening. If you’re looking for expert health and fitness tips, you can trust, plus inspirational stories in mental and physical transformation, “What’s Good” is your new favorite spot online. On the road to becoming your best self, swing by WhatsGoodByV.com, again, WhatsGoodByV.com for some helpful pointers. You can also check us out at “Talk Fitness Today” at TalkFitness2Day on Twitter. We’re also on Instagram. This has been so much fun. I look forward to getting stronger every day here on “Talk Fitness Today.” Stay well.

[END OF RECORDING]
Length (mins) 23:05
Waiver Received No
Host Lisa Davis, MPH

Start
Prev
1
2
3
Next
End

Page 3 of 3