Podcast 18

The Optimal Exercise Program For Maximal Results in Minimal Time

. . .

SHOW NOTES

We are replaying one of our most popular episodes for you this week!

Brian and Amy break down some of the most common misconceptions around exercise and reveal how Exercise Coach clients are getting maximal results from only a couple 20-minute workouts each week. Learn the three most important aspects of exercise and why you need to think about exercise completely differently if you want to achieve the health and fitness results you want.

• The manner in which we exercise really matters because what’s at stake is significant. Exercise is a strategy that people can use to improve their quality of life, so how you go about doing it matters.
• Many people avoid the gym because they are worried about getting hurt. This makes sticking with an exercise program especially challenging, which is where the Exercise Coach comes in.
• Effective personal strength training fundamentally changes what’s required to get the results people want from exercise. It changes every system of the body for the better.
• There are a lot of different ways to exercise, but at the Exercise Coach they’ve found that the evidence shows the superior method to be strength training.
• Exercise is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We need to think about what results we are trying to achieve and tailor the exercise to bring about those changes.
• You can exercise for health, fitness, or sports performance and they each have some overlap but are different ways to get the results you are trying to achieve.
• It’s important to understand what you are trying to do during a workout. Counting reps or total time moving aren’t very helpful. The real point of exercise is actually to stimulate the body’s natural ability to adapt to stress.
• When we exercise, there is an exercise effect that takes place which is often confused for the results of training. The results that we actually seek from exercise are adaptations produced by our bodies in response to the challenge of exercise.
• If we don’t exercise the way that’s appropriate for our goal, we may put in a lot of work and still not get the results that we want.
• The optimal exercise approach focuses on safety, effectiveness, and efficiency. This is the best way to compare the different approaches and figure out what’s appropriate for you.
• Exercise is nothing more than a stressor and only serves as a stimulus if it is sufficiently intense. We become stronger and fitter if the stressor is enough to force an adaptation.
• The stressor doesn’t produce the result, the body does when you give it the rest and nutrition it needs to accomplish that.
• The average amount of time it takes for your body to recover and become stronger is a couple of days which is why the Exercise Coach employs intense periods of exercise a couple of times a week.
• The frequency that we need to perform high intensity exercise is less when the intensity itself is higher.
• Muscle is the window to the rest of the body. Growing stronger makes the rest of your body more effective as well.
• The Exercise Coach approach is to get the maximal results in the shortest length of time. There is an inverse relationship between intensity and duration of exercise. The level of intensity required to create adaptations is high but doesn’t require much time.
• Studies have shown that a single set of exercises at the right level of intensity is more effective than multiple sets. Exercising intensely for 20 minutes is sufficient to achieve results.
• The conventional wisdom of needing to exercise more doesn’t bear out. Why not spend as little time as possible to get the best results you are looking for?
• Optimizing exercise allows you to enjoy more of the good things in life.
• Safety is essential for exercise. Many exercises can be fun but if the focus is on results, it’s better to avoid the risk.
• The biggest key to making exercise safe is being in control of the forces that are applied to the body. The key to reducing force in strength training is using slow controlled movements instead of explosive movements.
• There is research that shows high intensity strength training is safe even for people with elevated blood pressure or other cardiovascular issues, and it even has beneficial health effects.
• Strength Training at the Exercise Coach is a great way to engage in exercise and improve your health even if you have orthopedic or cardiovascular concerns.
• Amy describes the story of an Exercise Coach client that lost 62 lbs in six months and achieved excellent health improvements in all areas of their life.
• The Exercise Coach can help you no matter where your current fitness level is. The coaches are very good at meeting people where they are and tailoring the program to the person’s situation.

Our approach to exercise matters because people have real legitimate concerns and obstacles that have to be overcome in order for them to be able to start and stick with an exercise program. And that’s really where our unique point of view comes into play.

Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking about the purpose of exercise and how to get the most out of our exercise efforts. So, Brian, most people know they should be exercising. People want to look and feel better, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and they know that exercise is one of the most important ways to get there. But what type of exercise is the best type of exercise? Why does the manner in which we choose to exercise really matter?

Hello, Amy. Those are some great questions. to get us started today as we talk about the point of exercise. And I would say it matters because first of all, what is at stake is really significant. We’re talking about exercise being this strategy that people can use to improve their health and to improve really their future and the quality of their life. So the ability to get real results from exercise matters, therefore, The method we use really matters.

Also, we know, especially from our experience in the fitness industry for 20 years now, we know that people out there are busy. Life is hectic. We know many people have always avoided the gym scene and today really more than ever. Another thing is people are a little leery of getting hurt from exercise, especially those that are already in their forties, fifties, sixties. They might have some bumps and bruises from life and they really just don’t want those to get worse. And so our approach to exercise matters because

people have real legitimate concerns and obstacles that have to be overcome in order for them to be able to start and stick with an exercise program. And that’s really where our unique point of view comes into play. The name of this podcast is the Strength Changes Everything podcast. And what we mean by that is that Effective personal strength training fundamentally changes what’s required to get the results people want from exercise. And we also mean that effective strength training fundamentally changes every system of the body for the better. So it gets you all the results you want from exercise and changes what’s necessary to get those results.

And today we’re going to be dialing into what really is the point of an exercise session.

Brian, it sounds like you’ve given your secret answer away here by saying that really all type of exercise isn’t created equal when it comes to the exercise we choose to do. I heard you say that strength training is the way to go because strength changes everything. So is that right?

Absolutely. You’ve got people have a lot of choices. There’s a lot of different ways to exercise. What we’re interested in at the Strength Changes Everything podcast And in those studios around the country, called the exercise coach, where we help thousands of people get the results that matter most to them, what we’re interested in is really a better way or even an ideal way to exercise. And that’s what has led us to strength training, because our experience in scientific evidence has shown that effective strength training is actually the best way get all the results people want from exercise and do so in the most efficient and safe manner, which we’ll talk a little bit more about.

Sure.

So Brian, if you were to categorize based on your, you know, vast experience, what are the types of results people most want or what are they most looking for when they are thinking about beginning an exercise program and how does strength training help them achieve those big results or those big goals? First, Amy, I like to think about the results that people are after. First of all, that’s a very important lens to look at exercise through. We talk a lot about our view that exercise is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. People for many years have heard the message that exercise is good for them, and we certainly believe that. But there’s also this message that’s been out there for a long time that you should just get moving.

And we really see that stats and the people that we meet demonstrate that the just get moving message just isn’t working for everyone. And so we want to really make sure that we’re thinking about what results we’re trying to bring about from exercise. And more specifically, when we’re working with someone, what results matter most to that individual. And some categories I like to think about would be health, fitness and then sports performance. So sometimes the results people want from exercise will fall into one or more of these categories. And so health results would be bringing about changes that reduce the risk for disease or help to eliminate diseased states in the body.

And then fitness really speaks to someone’s capacity to perform work. Now these two categories have some overlap. They impact each other. As someone becomes more fit and we bring about the results that would qualify as fitness results, this generally leads to greater health, a more optimal functioning of the systems of the body and prevention or reversal of disease states. And then sports performance is about the very specific ability of someone’s body to perform work. So it might be in running or swimming or swinging something or jumping, etc.

But it’s the specific application of one’s capacity to perform work or fitness. So those are the categories I like to think about. Now, when we’re thinking about health results, It could be the prevention of heart disease. It could be those markers that your doctor is going to look at and care about, like your blood pressure, your blood sugar, or your A1C, which is a good marker of metabolic health and is a measure of your blood sugar over a 90 -day period, or your bone density, cholesterol, things like these. which are more medical markers and also factor into a risk factor analysis for disease would be health results. Fitness results would really be things like your strength, your capacity to generate force in a brief period of time or over various timeframes, your endurance, your aerobic capacity, your mobility or your ability to move your joints, your capacity to perform work.

And then, as I said before, sports performance is really a much more specific application of fitness. Sure. And we meet people all the time. And I studios. We have clients come in, we have people checking out our program that come in and they have these goals and they sound a lot like what you were talking about.

In the health, we do see that their doctor said, you really need to look into a strength training program. You really need to start exercising because you’re at risk for type two diabetes, or you’ve got some bone density concerns. You really need to start an exercise program and they come to us wondering if we can help with that. But sometimes their goals do overlap, like you said, into that fitness bucket. And fitness is almost like, I think of it as having the ability to do what you want your body to be able to do in your life. And I want to have some endurance to keep up with my grandkids when I’m watching them is a goal that we hear a lot.

And I want to be able to haul my groceries back into my house after a big grocery trip. And then that, yeah, the fitness and the sports performance. We meet a lot of golfers, And I know you had experienced training athletes personally in the past too.

And so sometimes we strength train in order to get a very particular result that we need to improve our sports performance at our game.

So I definitely can see those examples in real life every day. That’s great. That’s super helpful, Amy. And yeah, and I think it’s also important then to make another point and to move towards our point today. And that’s to talk about the point of exercise. It’s important to understand what what we’re actually trying to do in a workout.

Because as I mentioned before, there’s this message that’s been out there for decades that you just need to get moving. And so a lot of people, I think, really are taking an approach or have this paradigm that exercise is just good, no matter what. And what we’re trying to do is just do it, just do exercise.

And so people are focused on things like, how many reps did I do?

How long was I at it? gym? How many steps did I take? How long was I moving? And these aren’t really the point of exercise. The real point of exercise is actually to stimulate the body’s innate ability to adapt to stress.

And here’s what I mean by that. When we exercise, what we would define as exercise, or when we just engage in activity, there’s something called an exercise effect that takes place. Now, these aren’t the results we want from exercise. These are things that happen in the moment. that are related to our body’s ability to perform the work that we’re asking it to do. So it’s things like your heart rate increase, your blood pressure goes up, your body temperature goes up, your body releases various hormones.

All these things are designed to help your body get the job done and endure this bout of work. So these are exercise effects. They’re transient. Your heart rate goes up during the exercise, and then your heart rate goes down after the exercise, your body temperature goes up, and then it goes down. The results that we actually seek from exercise. So some of those things that we mentioned before, whether their health results, fitness results, quality of life results, outcomes, things that people want to be able to do better.

These results actually are adaptations. They’re adaptations produced by our body. in response to the stress or the challenge of exercise. And the reason this is so important to understand is that if we don’t exercise right, if we don’t choose a better way or the best way for an individual, we can go through the motions. We can just get moving.

We can knock out some reps. We can knock out some steps and potentially never stimulate the body to produce the results or the adaptations from exercise, which are the results that we want from exercise.

So we can go through the motions, and it can actually end up pointless to be exercising. And wouldn’t that be a shame to spend all this time trying to get a result, trying to do something good for your body and miss out on all of these awesome adaptations that we know are possible with the right type of exercise. Exactly. And that is what is happening for many people. We meet them all the time. When we meet with people, we really like to understand What results matter most to you?

We asked this question, like if we were meeting here 90 days from now, what things would have to happen for you to be really happy about the results that you’ve gotten? And then another question we ask is just simply what’s getting in the way. And one of the things that gets in the way is people’s past failures. Maybe not their failures, but the failures of the method or the approach that they tried. They say, I’ve put in time before and it didn’t work. And so it’s hugely important to make sure that we understand exercise as a means to an end.

And that end is the positive beneficial adaptations that are the results that people seek. And the means is creating, making exercise an effective stimulus, which we’ll talk a little bit more about in a minute. Sure. Yeah. So you’re hinting at working at a level of intensity appropriate enough to stimulate our muscles to receive these adaptations that we’re going for. So what are the keys in your opinion to effective strength training?

How do we get this done in a way that provides our desired results?

but doesn’t set us back five steps because of injury or doing it incorrectly? What are the keys, would you say? Sure. What’s the ideal approach, I think, is along the lines of what you just said, making sure that our approach really respects and always strives for three things, and that’s safety, effectiveness, and efficiency. Any method that we look at, approach, protocol that we think about, we’re always going to look at it through this lens of maximizing for an individual safety, effectiveness, and efficiency. And then at the Strength Changes Everything podcast, and out at the Exercise Coach, we really want to make sure what we’re doing is evidence -based as well, that we can point to some good science, a good preponderance of evidence to support the approach that we’re taking.

So safety, effectiveness, and efficiency.

This is the best way for someone to comparatively analyze different approaches and decide what’s the best way for me. There are different ways to get a result from exercise, but we like to say that the best way is the safest.

is the most effective and is the most time efficient. So Brian, I would love for you to break down what it means for an exercise session to be safe, to be effective, and to be efficient. What components do we need to see there in order to achieve those things? Sure. Let’s start with effectiveness. Let’s just start with how do we make exercise work?

And again, remember, work maximally. We want to maximize effectiveness. And so to understand how exercise can be effective, I want to talk about a second about something that is known as the stimulus organism response phenomenon. We’ve talked a little bit about this already, but it’s just so important that it’s worth repeating. It’s this, that exercise is nothing more than a stressor.

Whether it’s strength training at a studio of ours, or it’s playing basketball, or rollerblading, or whatever it is, anything that we try to do as exercise is just a stressor. Now, that stressor serves as a stimulus if it is sufficiently intense, meaning it’s demanding enough to momentarily disrupt our body’s state of homeostasis. Then it serves as a stimulus, meaning an event that triggers the body’s innate adaptive abilities. Those adaptive abilities are this built -in protective mechanism. That’s our body being intelligently designed, saying essentially, hey, that episode of activity was really challenging. And in fact, on some level, biologically speaking, it was threatening.

So we’ve got to mobilize resources. to get better, to grow better. That’s known as super compensation. We become stronger and more fit and healthier as a result. But that is only if the stressor is sufficient to serve as a stimulus and to actually disrupt mechanical and chemical systems of the body in a manner perceived as threatening by the body. Even though it’s not unsafe to do this, it’s perceived

a threat. Now, the second if is if we give your body time to rest and recover and actually produce the adaptation. The stressor doesn’t produce the result. So exercise doesn’t actually cause the results we want. Exercise can serve as a stimulus, but the body itself produces the results. that you want from exercise if the exercise is intense enough and if we give the body the time and rest that it needs and even resources like nutrition and good sleep to produce that response.

There’s also a time course to that. It doesn’t happen right away. Again, during the exercise session, we’re not getting a result. We’re not getting an adaptation to occur. We’re applying a stimulus and experiencing exercise effects. Now, the time course is going to range depending on the intensity of the stimulus, depending on someone’s age and fitness level, et cetera.

But what we found when it comes to applying evidence -based strength training, the research and our experience indicate that it’s going to take multiple days for the body to actually recover and grow stronger. And that’s why we end up with a frequency of just a couple workouts a week. being optimal for an individual. And so the real key, Amy, is intensity of effort.

The exercise has to be intense enough to stimulate the body to actually change. And in order to make it intense enough, what we found is that requires a specific manipulation of exercise variables. So how much resistance, how much time, how deeply does someone actually work their muscles, and then we also found that there’s a huge benefit to the motivation and accountability and instruction of a coach as well. Sure. What we like to explain to people at our studios who are doing a high effort level of intensity workout is that you have given your body this big stimulus, right?

We’ve done a lot. We’ve really worn you out and your body wants to get back to that state of homeostasis. It doesn’t like being worn out. It doesn’t like being so depleted.

And so it’s going to go through this process over the next several days of building strength back up. your muscles will respond to the effort that you gave today and the stimulus that you gave by rebuilding themselves, by getting stronger, the nutrition, the rest and recovery time is part of the whole process in getting your body even stronger for the next time you come back and do this. And so it’s a beautiful thing. That’s a great way to explain how the frequency that we have to perform high intensity exercise is less when the intensity itself is higher. Is that correct? Absolutely.

Yeah. And just to get a little bit more specific in terms of the stimulus, there are certain key stimuli that we’re trying to apply to the body, especially when we perform a strength based workout.

And this would be the load that our muscle fibers experience, the fatigue that is induced in your muscles, and even what’s known as microtrauma. So microscopic damage at the cellular level to your muscles. that isn’t by any means damaging long term, but serves again is this really powerful event that sends a signal to your body to grow stronger and get better. And what we’ve also learned from research and our experience is that when our muscles grow stronger and get better, the point of the podcast here, your entire body gets better.

Muscle is the window to the rest of the body and actually is the bridge to building a better body.

Yeah, that is the best news in my opinion. And this is why we, we love what we do at the exercise coach, because it really does change everything. And so that was a great deep dive into effectiveness of exercise, getting an appropriate enough stimulus with a challenging enough strength training event to experience the desired outcomes of exercise. Can you dive in a little bit now into the efficiency component of effective strength training? Sure. Again, we want to simultaneously maximize effectiveness and maximize efficiency.

Said another way, we want to bring about maximum results in the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to get those results. That’s always been the approach that we’ve taken. We think it’s only logical and that it’s a really inspiring approach for a lot of people who aren’t interested in spending their whole life exercising or spending it in a gym. The reasons effective strength training can be so efficient are related. One, first of all, we’ll talk about the relationship that exists between intensity and then duration of work. There’s an inverse relationship, which means that the harder we make exercise, the less time we can carry it on in the less time we need to.

If we reverse that, if we set out to exercise for a long period of time, so we increase duration, that will by definition and necessarily reduce the intensity that is possible. But the intensity that’s necessary to stimulate strength gains and the kind of improvements in muscle quality that lead to whole body, whole system results, the kind of work necessary is very intense, challenging work. And so what we found and what research supports is a couple things. First of all, that type of work, when we perform it, means that we’re only required to perform one optimal set of strength training for a given muscle or muscle group. This is backed by research.

There’s plenty of research indicating that performing multiple sets of an exercise So one set of 10, then a second set of 10, then a third set of 10, fourth set of 10 is not more effective than performing one properly performed set. And we can link to some studies in the show notes as well. So one set of exercise ends up being a very efficient approach. It will generally be a set. that’s individualized in an ideal way at about 60 to 90 seconds. So that’s pretty efficient.

When you look at what we can do in terms of a whole body workout, because we’re able to perform one set per muscle group in about 60 to 90 seconds, if done correctly, we can get through a whole body workout in about 20 minutes. And we don’t need anything more. And in fact, I’d say it another way, we need to not exercise more than that, if people are going to have the opportunity to exercise in the intense manner necessary to bring about the most comprehensive results. for their body through effective strength training. So one set, 20 minutes, that’s backed by research. And then you also mentioned what we call frequency.

That’s just how often we work out or how many days of recovery we have in between workouts. And we mentioned that our body’s actually producing the results we want from exercise, not during the workout, but while we’re resting.

and recovering from the exercise. And again, research backs our contention and our approach, which is to say that two workouts per week with two to four days in between those workouts is an ideal frequency. So what you end up with, if we apply an optimal intensity, and people of any age can do this, any current fitness level can do this, they can apply optimal intensity to get the best possible results. When we do that, the best approach to doing that is to perform one set per muscle group, a workout that takes just 20 minutes or sometimes a couple minutes less, and to do that no more than two times per week. So that is super efficient compared to what some people have tried to do and failed at in the past, which is to exercise one or two hours a day, do that, five days, seven days a week, the wheels just eventually come off of that wagon. That’s conventional wisdom right there.

I need to do more. I need to spend longer exercising.

And a lot of people believe that. But really, that’s the best news in the world, that you can achieve better results with less time. And something I always say is, I want to experience the benefits that exercise provides, but I don’t want to spend all my time at a gym.

And I don’t want to spend all my time exercising.

So why wouldn’t I spend as little amount of time as possible to get the best results that I’m looking for?

Exactly. And why don’t you want to spend your whole life exercising, Amy? What are some of the reasons? What are some of the trade -offs? I’d rather be doing almost anything else. I’d rather be with my kids.

I’m a mom. I’ve got three children. I have a career I love.

I’ve got a husband. I want to travel. I want to go outside on the boat. I live in Minnesota where there’s a lot of lakes and we love to boat up here. I want to do all of those things. I’d rather do any of those things than spend hours and hours slaving away at exercise.

Makes a lot of sense to me. I think it makes a lot of sense to a lot of people.

Yeah, we’re doing this. We’re optimizing exercise to maximize effectiveness and efficiency. so that people can enjoy more of what matters most in life so that they can have more time to do it and that they’re better able physically to do it. And that also leads to just more energy and happiness and more motivation to squeeze as much out of life as people can. So it’s quite a privilege to have the opportunity to transform people and really in their lives in this way, isn’t it? Absolutely.

Absolutely. We love it.

And our clients, I know they love it. They love that convenience. So we have gone into effectiveness, we’ve gone into efficiency.

And the last major key that we need to talk through is safety. So let’s flesh that out.

Safety being a key to effective strength training.

Yep, you bet. I guess you mentioned you were from Minnesota. So I had the I almost said you betcha. I threw myself under the bus with that one. But that would have been appropriate. There you go.

Safety is not only essential, it’s really, I’d say, our number one concern, really. It’s our number one priority when it comes to exercise. It’s got to remain safe. And what we mean when we say safe is that we have absolutely minimized the risk for injury when performing exercise. You think about some of the things people engage in for exercise, right?

Some fun things. Whether it’s, hey, I like to rollerblade or I play basketball or whatever it is. These are fun. They’re certainly an exercise effect. You can sweat and get your heart rate up. Not the best way to stimulate all the health and fitness results that people are after.

But they also carry with them a risk of injury that I believe is just unwarranted and for in an exercise strategy, an intentional exercise strategy. Exercise shouldn’t bring with it a significant risk for injury. And so the ideal approach is going to minimize the risk for injury while exercising, but it’s also going to be sustainable. When we think about safety, we also think about the sustainability of a workout. And so it’s not going to have inherent in it the kind of repetitious work that can bring about overuse injuries. For example, we want it to be safe, and sustainable.

Now the biggest key to making exercise safe is being in control of the forces that are applied to the body. Just believe it or not, when we walk or when we jog, Our knees, our hip, our backs have to absorb multiple times our body weight and force with every step or every stride. So just going out and running a few miles, your body will have to absorb thousands of pounds of actual impact force carries with it a risk for injury. You can fall, twist an ankle or hurt your knee or back while you’re doing it. And I’m sure you would agree, Amy, we meet a ton of people that are really in their mid fifties is where we see it a lot.

Sometimes even late forties.

where they’re pretty avid joggers. And that’s how they stayed in shape for a while. But they’ve gotten to the point where their knees or their backs just can’t do it anymore. And we’re able to actually help them get better results than they’ve ever gotten before from exercise, but do it in a manner that even they’re currently compromised Joints can actually perform so safe and sustainable. The key to safety is controlling the forces reducing the forces that we expose the body to during exercise now in strength training, what people have learned over the last several decades is the key.

to reducing force in strength training is really using slow and controlled movements versus more explosive movements that you might see sometimes in certain kinds of workouts or weight rooms. Yeah, so yeah, I’m picturing that jolting, jarring, quick movement with a heavy weight. You can easily see how that could injure somebody if done incorrectly. Yes, I have several friends in the area who are chiropractors, and it’s amazing how many times they tell me they get new clients because of people’s exercise efforts backfiring. And it’s who wants to set themselves, take one step forward and then take four steps back when it comes to getting healthier? Nobody.

Yep, exactly. Also, from a safety standpoint, another category, sometimes people might be thinking about cardiovascular safety. They might be thinking about their blood pressure is a little elevated or they’re concerned about heart disease. And we’re talking about performing challenging, intense, strength exercise. So is it safe from a cardiovascular standpoint? And again, fortunately, there’s a ton of research that indicates that it’s really safe to perform high intensity strength training, even for people that have elevated blood pressure, people that have hypertension, not only is it safe, but we see that there’s a positive beneficial effect, we see people actually read actually lower their blood pressure and get it into a normal range often just through effective total body strength training.

There’s also really interesting research that indicates that when we perform intense strength training, our muscles, which are always responsible for returning blood to our heart, are worked in a manner that actually increases what’s called venous return, or how much blood flow there is back to the heart. that increases cardiac output and cardiac output is what determines the blood flow to the heart itself.

And so there’s studies that have actually looked at, is your heart in better shape or worse shape from a safety standpoint when you’re performing like an intense leg press, for example. And what these studies show is that blood flow to the heart increases. And so there’s just a lot of good reasons to believe that as long as someone has been released for exercise, and there’s no reason their physician believes they shouldn’t be performing strength exercise or exercise of any kind, it is safe. It’s safe orthopedically, it’s safe cardiovascularly, it’s safe and sustainable.

So if you’re a person listening to this who has orthopedic concerns or who has hypertension and has been on the sidelines of exercise for a while out of concern for aggravating these conditions or not knowing how to safely exercise, strength training, especially at the exercise coach, is a great way to engage in exercise, in a way that studies show can be very beneficial to you, and you don’t have to sit out. I think that’s awesome news, Brian, for people. It is, and it’s exciting. It’s exciting to share. You can get the results that matter most to you, whether it’s the health results, the fitness results, or the quality of life results that you want.

You can get the results that matter most to you with no more than two 20 -minute workouts per week that are safe, effective, and enjoyable. So this has been awesome information.

We have learned about some of the most common results that people desire when it comes to exercising and engaging in exercise.

We’ve learned three main keys to engaging and effective strength training to deliver the results that we’re looking for. And I thought it would be great to recap and wrap up the episode by sharing a story of a real client at an exercise coach studio who mentions all of these components of the workout that he experienced and some of the results that he had with it, because it truly is amazing. So is it okay if I read this? That’d be great. Thanks. Sure.

So this is by Pete. He says, the exercise coach has been life changing for me. After spending the majority of my life maintaining my body through jobs in labor and coaching, my conditioning and overall health took a deep dive to the negative in recent years. I gained significant weight loss. maintaining a horrific diet loaded with sugar, carbs, fried foods, and plenty of cholesterol. I believe I was on the path to a shorter life and was spiraling out of control, almost giving up.

I have a form of osteoarthritis in my big toe that severely limited mobility and is incredibly painful, limiting my desire to even walk upstairs. It became my built -in excuse not to work out and maintain my health. The exercise coach eliminated that and other excuses and has delivered incredible results for me. Through its high intensity strength training that yields low impact on joints, but big results, I lost 62 pounds in six months and reduced my body fat by 13 % from August to January. My waist dropped six inches and my strength has increased impressively each month through testing. I am shaping my body in ways it has never looked.

The pain of my foot problem and a nagging knee issue, both caused by inflammation, have all but subsided. I am mobile and can move like I once did before, which is empowering. The workouts allow me to gain success at the level I am at, continue to challenge me each day, and increase my strength, decrease my body fat, I lose weight, and I feel the benefits of increased energy levels. I have never been a gym rat and appreciate the level of professionalism at The Exercise Coach. Owning my own business, I do not have a lot of time to spend in gyms on a daily basis. At first, hearing that the exercise coach was two days a week for 20 minutes, it seemed too good to be true.

It is all true and allows us all to work out at the level we are at while not being physically intimidated.

I have not been disappointed and I’ve told everyone I know about the health benefits of this. can be gained by working hard two days a week for 20 strong minutes. I ended up changing my diet by choice because I felt so good and the subsequent results have been amazing. I am enjoying a quality of life I never thought was possible and my relationships have improved as a result. I have never sold more product in my professional life and it is all for a small but consistent effort of 20 minutes twice a week. Isn’t that awesome?

Wow. That’s amazing, Amy. That was super nice of Pete to write that and share his experience. And one thing that stood out to me and I wanted to mention was just, again, when we talk about safety, when we talk about what can get in the way from people starting and sticking with the program, when we think about safety and we think also about effectiveness and people’s ability to perform an intense, effective strength training workout, we can help people do this regardless of their current fitness level.

We can meet them right where they are and they can perform effective, safe strength training in a workout that doesn’t take more than 20 minutes, no matter where their current fitness level is, and also regardless of the vast majority of physical conditions that they might have.

And then one final thing, their current comfort level with exertion. The coaches at the exercise coach studios around the country are really good at meeting people where they are using the technology and the data at their fingertips to apply just the right amount of work to help people progress to this very effective workout. And we’ve had so many people, who would say, I’m not necessarily an exerciser. And when you see the type of work that they end up performing just a few weeks down the road,

regardless of the fact that they started out maybe feeling not too comfortable with intense exertion or the concept of it, it is really remarkable.

And it’s the key to getting life -changing results. For sure. I think he, and I think he surprised himself.

He had every excuse in the book not to get engaged and he thought it was too good to be true. And now not only his physical health has improved, but his entire quality of life improved right along with it. And we’d love to see that ripple effect as well in people’s lives. Absolutely. So let’s talk about what’s coming up next in the next several episodes. Brian, why don’t you share with us what we have on deck, what’s coming up after today we are deep dive into kind of what’s really the point of exercise.

What’s coming up? Sure. So again, we want these first five episodes really to provide people with a good foundational understanding of our point of view that strength changes everything. In the next three episodes, we’re going to talk about, first of all, why people aren’t exercising. We’re going to talk more about what is getting in the way in episode three.

We’re going to talk about why it’s so hard to start and stick with an effective exercise program. And then in the fourth episode, the one after that, we’re going to talk about our scientific paradigm. We’re going to try to make that accessible. We’re really going to unveil the root problem of aging.

and talk about how we’ve designed really the whole approach at The Exercise Coach to solve the root problem of aging.

And then in episode five, we’re going to get into some more specifics about the unique at The Exercise Coach. We’re going to talk a little bit about how we do it, how we help people get so much out of a 20 -minute workout, and how the technology we use and the coaching that our clients get makes such a difference. I can’t wait. That’s going to be awesome. So make sure you tune into those episodes and we will be back with those shortly for you.

If you want to learn more about the exercise coach, we encourage you to visit exercisecoach . com. While you’re there, make sure you take advantage of the two free sessions to try our revolutionary training method in your local area. We will see you next time. And don’t forget, strength changes everything.