Don't Ask a Yoga Instructor How to Be a Body Builder. Sometimes the "right way" is wrong for you.

How do you know if you're following the right fitness program or which one to pick when you first get started?

Nat and I talk about common mistakes people make when choosing their sources of info for fitness activities and how you can avoid them.

1:35 Coach Nat's Keto Coffee Pumpkin Spice Latte
7:40 How do you know what you should be doing?
10:38 Exercise doesn't burn fat?!?!
13:05 You have to keep doing what got you here, is it sustainable?
14:45 Methods lead to failure, focus on results
16:45 Calorie burn during workouts aren't what you think
21:10 Quality of life balance with the effort to reach a goal
24:10 How to determine your goal
29:47 Strength is the foundation for all aspects of health
32:22 Common fitness programs and activities
35:21 What is the difference between exercise and training?
37:55 How different programs work
43:57 How the focus of a program is evident in language
48:50 If you're trying to be specific look for a coach who is specific
51:20 Consider the whole picture of health
54:52 Stop listening to the noise. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
59:32 The work isn't supposed to be exciting
1:04:06 How to do the best program for you
1:05:40 Don't compare yourself to past versions
1:08:05 Scaling and modifications
1:10:15 Earn your freedom

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Transcript

Coach Natalie: 0:14

Welcome to the Less Glove morphist Podcast.

Coach Bronson: 0:17

With me, Coach Bronson and me, Coach Natt, where we peel back the curtains and reveal the truth behind Hot Topics in health and fitness.

Coach Natalie: 0:24

This is Keto Fitness at Life Unfiltered.

Coach Bronson: 0:30

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Less Glove morphist Podcast with me Coach.

Coach Natalie: 0:36

Bronson and me, Coach Matt.

Coach Bronson: 0:39

Today we're going to be talking about context in not sports. I wanted to say sports and fitness because we have a ton of athletes on this podcast. Exercise and fitness is what we're talking about, how to apply context. We've talked about this before from a nutrition perspective.

Coach Natalie: 0:56

Yes, we do. We went deep onto why context is king.

Coach Bronson: 1:01

And then we're going to get into that a little bit today before we do that. How are you doing today, Katzena?

Coach Natalie: 1:07

I'm feeling so good right now.

Coach Bronson: 1:09

Yeah.

Coach Natalie: 1:10

I did a morning workout today.

Coach Bronson: 1:12

Okay.

Coach Natalie: 1:13

Very different from my norm. I did punching things up. So I did interval training, high intensity interval training this morning and ABS.

Coach Bronson: 1:25

Yeah.

Coach Natalie: 1:26

And right now, I just feel like kicking back with a pumpkin spice latte.

Coach Bronson: 1:32

Okay, pumpkin cane, we're going to talk about. Okay, so pumpkin spice latte, I'm assuming not Starbucks.

Coach Natalie: 1:37

Not Starbucks.

Coach Bronson: 1:38

So what is your pumpkin spice latte?

Coach Natalie: 1:41

Oh, my gosh. Today I made something amazing. So if you all don't follow me on social media where you've been, you need to come holler at me on Instagram and Facebook and all the places on YouTube. I talk a lot. Every single day in my stories, I post my Keto coffee. Keto coffee. And literally every day hashtag Keto Coffee. In my stories, the first thing you'll see from me every day, and I switch up the flavors and I switch up a little bit of how I do it. But I have a basic recipe, and it is a small amount of MCT oil about a teaspoon blended into my coffee with a nondairy creamer. Because I don't do dairy. Dairy doesn't love me as much as I love it, which is usually a Nut Pod, dairy free creamer of many different flavors. Right now, I'm on the caramel. So today I made a pumpkin spice keto coffee using and this is how I get my different flavors. I use flavored coffees. So I don't do the Terrani syrup. I don't do syrups. I don't do, like, flavored, sweetened, artificially sweetened things. I use the Nut Pods, which is an unsweetened creamer that is a nondairy unsweetened creamer. Or I will use Colicia Farms Coconut Almond Milk Blend, usually a coconut almond milk or coconut milk blend thing with flavors, but no added sweeteners.

Coach Bronson: 3:19

This episode is not sponsored by nut pods or Khalifa.

Coach Natalie: 3:23

I wonder what nut pods what's? A mutt pod? Oh, would that be a dairy and nondairy creamer for dogs? Okay, Nut Pods, if you're listening, first of all, we are not sponsored by that wink wink. Unless you all are there at all. But I just gave you a brilliant idea. So when you come out with Mutt Pots, give me some credit. I digress. I use flavored coffees to get the flavoring that I want. And so I have a pumpkin spice coffee. Once again, holler at me on Instagram if you want discount codes for these things, because I do have a favorite coffee company, and I do have a discount code for them. So my pumpkin spice and I also have a maple flavored coffee. So today I mixed the maple and the pumpkin spice to make and then I used the caramel nut pods. So I made a maple caramel pumpkin spice keto latte.

Coach Bronson: 4:22

And you loved every single drop.

Coach Natalie: 4:24

Oh, my gosh. And I want another one.

But it is 03: 4:26

00 in the afternoon, and I'm cutting myself off from the caffeine.

Coach Bronson: No coffee after 12: 4:30

00, but I may.

Coach Natalie: 4:33

Make a chai chai tea latte.

Coach Bronson: 4:37

We do some tea every once in a while, and we do some other stuff, too.

Coach Natalie: 4:40

Chai season.

Coach Bronson: 4:41

Okay. Yeah. My coffee is real simple right now, guys. It's black.

Coach Natalie: 4:46

He did go basic.

Coach Bronson: 4:48

I went basic, but it's not super basic because it's got to be the right black. It can't be burnt. It can't be watered down. You got to actually taste the coffee. It has to be strong.

Coach Natalie: 4:59

When he says taste the coffee, he.

Coach Bronson: 5:02

Means taste the coffee.

Coach Natalie: 5:04

Tar.

Coach Bronson: 5:05

It is not tar.

Coach Natalie: 5:08

Which one are you using right now? Are you doing.

Coach Bronson: 5:13

Death Wish back in the house? Okay.

Coach Natalie: 5:21

All about coffee, but I did mention some training. In the training that I did today.

Coach Bronson: 5:27

I'll put the time mark in there. The first five minutes is just coffee talk. Yeah. So we're talking about exercise and fitness and context. So why is this something that we're talking about? Well, we often get clients who are coming to us and have a bunch of different things that they're looking at doing or have been doing when it comes to fitness and exercise. We also listen to a bunch of different people on social media, people that we follow there in the space, whether they're professionals, want to be professionals, just influencers, or just fitness models. You didn't see the air quotes. Anybody listening? Didn't see the air quotes.

Coach Natalie: 6:08

We see a lot on TikTok.

Coach Bronson: 6:09

We see a lot on TikTok. We see a lot of information that really no one should be listening to, and then there's some great information that everyone should be listening to.

Coach Natalie: 6:16

And then we ourselves have tried many different things over the years, and we switch up our training styles from time to time.

Coach Bronson: 6:23

Yes, very much so. Like I just did.

Coach Natalie: 6:26

Right.

Coach Bronson: 6:28

And we can maybe talk about and.

Coach Natalie: 6:29

We come from different schools when it comes to different schools of thought.

Coach Bronson: 6:33

Different schools of thought and experience.

Coach Natalie: 6:35

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 6:36

Yeah. So we're going to get into all of that stuff. The thing, though, I think that resonates with me I forget who we were listening to. It might have been a TikTok video or YouTube, and the guy ended it with, don't listen to a yoga instructor for power lifting advice, or something like that.

Coach Natalie: 6:53

I think it was a ticktok. It was amazing. And we were like, oh, we need to talk about it.

Coach Bronson: 6:59

This is like, oh, we need to talk about this, because that's a great point, and it's not anything we haven't talked about before, but it just kind of we saw the same video and we were like, oh, that's something we should talk about, because it is something that we see all the time, people missing context. So there's probably a couple of different ways we could approach this. Let's talk first about what are some of the things that we see our clients come to us with.

Coach Natalie: 7:21

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 7:21

And how it applies to that, because a lot of people listening or have been clients or former clients or followers may eventually become clients, whatever it may be. So how do we approach that with clients?

Coach Natalie: 7:31

Right. So I'm glad that you opened that up first, because I think the whole key on this, those who are listening to us, is that to derive a benefit from this, ultimately, how do you know what you should be doing for your fitness program?

Coach Bronson: 7:48

Yes, that's a great question.

Coach Natalie: 7:50

Right? And that's the question that people come to us with, well, what should I be doing for my fitness program? Or this is what I have been doing. Am I doing the wrong thing? Right? And so we always like we do with nutrition, we're generally going to have a lot more questions for that person before we can give them an answer. The first question is going to be, well, what are you trying to accomplish? What is your goal?

Coach Bronson: 8:16

You mean goals matter?

Coach Natalie: 8:19

So first and foremost, to figure out what you need to be doing, you need to know where you're trying to go.

Coach Bronson: 8:27

Bing, bing, bing. What does that mean for fitness, though? Well, right, because with nutrition, it's, well, I want to lose weight.

Coach Natalie: 8:35

Right?

Coach Bronson: 8:35

Well, is that really what you're trying to do?

Coach Natalie: 8:38

Well, I'll tell you what. Here's a misconception we can clear up right here and now. And this was another TikTok. I don't know if I shared this one with you, okay? But I was like, this is brilliant. And he said, there is not a single exercise in the world that burns fat.

Coach Bronson: 9:00

There's a lot of people going, Wait, what?

Coach Natalie: 9:02

I pause there on purpose because you all need to take that in, really receive that. There is no exercise that is going to burn fat. And, you know, people are sitting out there going, but what about this? But what about that? But what about hip training? But what about cardio? But what about this? Kickboxing all the things they've heard, right? But the number one question that I get on the physique side of things, right? Sure. Most of my ladies are coming to me because they're not happy with their bodies, and they want to change the shape or size of their body or both. So their goal is typically aesthetic when it comes to what do I do for fitness. They're asking, how can I change the shape of my body? What that means is build muscle and burn body fat or lose body fat to reveal a shapely womanly figure. Yeah. They don't want to get bulky.

Coach Bronson: 9:59

That's a whole nother.

Coach Natalie: 10:02

Yes, but for the most part, when women come to me, they have at least some understanding that if you want to get this fit look, that you see all these IG models and these people online that look good to you, they built muscle and lost body fat. So usually they already have that in mind, that that's what they want is body recomposition or body transformation.

Coach Bronson: 10:27

Yeah. Let's swing back real quick to the idea because I think people are going to get stuck on this and may not hear the rest of what we're talking about. The idea that exercise doesn't burn fat.

Coach Natalie: 10:38

Yeah.

Coach Bronson: 10:39

So there's a couple of aspects of that I think.

Coach Natalie: 10:41

Well, where I was going with that was the question is usually what exercises can I do to burn body fat or to burn off this belly?

Coach Bronson: 10:51

This belly or on my arms or.

Coach Natalie: 10:53

Whatever specific areas of the body where they are trying to burn. They want to lose body fat in those areas, and they think that certain exercises are going to get them that result.

Coach Bronson: 11:03

Yes. So if we get that all the time, we've talked to many people who are like, I've got this fat on my ABS. What kind of AB workout can I do to make the fat? It's like, how do I work out?

Coach Natalie: 11:15

How do I target my undergs to get rid of that extra fat butt fat or get rid of this fat on my hips?

Coach Bronson: 11:24

Yeah. And under arm for women. Yeah. So that just doesn't work that way. The other aspect of that, and I want people to understand, too, I've talked about this before, but I think it bears repeating, is that, yes, there are exercises you can do that can increase your overall fat caloric burn in a day.

Coach Natalie: 11:47

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 11:48

Okay. But here's the thing that's not helping you because it actually has diminishing returns on how much you can burn. And in order to continue burning, you have to do more work. So if you're going 2030 minutes a day for three or four days a week, and you're like, I'm getting my extra 200 to 300 calorie burn every time I go, that's great. You can maintain that. That's fantastic, no big deal. But if you want to continue doing that, it's going to slowly creak up to 40 minutes each time, 45 minutes each time an hour, and then you're going to be at the gym for 2 hours on the cardio and not losing any more than you were when you were doing 30 minutes six months earlier.

Coach Natalie: 12:30

Yes, and it doesn't work that way. Five more extra calories in your day. Now you're putting body fat on.

Coach Bronson: 12:37

Exactly.

Coach Natalie: 12:37

Why can I not maintain this?

Coach Bronson: 12:39

Exactly. So the idea of doing cardio should fit into your plan for improving your metabolic condition so that your body is good and efficient and doesn't get freaked out when you do that type of work in real life, but not specifically for falls.

Coach Natalie: 12:56

And it ties into the maintenance conversation of how do you maintain the results you're working so hard to get? You have to continue to maintain the level of work that you're doing to get those results. So if you are overdoing the cardio now, you're going to have to continue overdoing the cardio for the rest of your life to me, ding, ding, ding. And I don't think any of us want to be doing hours of cardio.

Coach Bronson: 13:16

Yeah, it's what you said on one of our earlier talks. We say whatever you're doing, if you're focused on fat loss, whatever you did to get that fat off is what you're going to have to do for the rest of your life to keep it off. So pick your options very carefully because you want something that's sustainable and something that you can live with.

Coach Natalie: 13:35

The number one reason why people yoyo diet and they're in this yoyo with the body fat gain and loss every year, because you're doing too much extremes to get it off, you can't maintain that. You put it right back on and then you have to go to the extremes again. Or you think you have to go to the extremes again. When in reality, if you didn't do such an extreme, you'd be sailing through your maintenance and be able to maintain that.

Coach Bronson: 14:01

I think there's a whole other concept which we don't need to dig into, but I don't know if you've ever heard me say there is no such thing as maintenance.

Coach Natalie: 14:09

I don't think I have.

Coach Bronson: 14:11

We'll have to talk about that online and what that means and what that's all about. Yeah, okay, I got chill.

Coach Natalie: 14:19

So we'll have to do a maintenance episode.

Coach Bronson: 14:21

What is maintenance? How do you do it all kind of stuff? What does it really mean?

Coach Natalie: 14:25

Oh, totally.

Coach Bronson: 14:26

Because again, there's context there too from quality of life, in case you're catching a thread. For you guys listening, there's a common theme that you're probably going to hear and a lot of what we do, because here's the difference between, I think us as coaches and our philosophy on health and fitness is because we're looking at results, we're not trying to push a method.

Coach Natalie: 14:52

Right.

Coach Bronson: 14:53

So because we're looking at results, we use multiple methods. We use, hey, we may do this one day with one person and do something completely different.

Coach Natalie: 15:03

Oh, man.

Coach Bronson: 15:04

With another person.

Coach Natalie: 15:05

You just hit the nail on the head. We're not pushing a system.

Coach Bronson: 15:08

Right.

Coach Natalie: 15:09

We have to do this way, and so now we have to justify our way of doing things. And so everything we ever talk about is pointing you toward our way of doing it.

Coach Bronson: 15:20

Yeah. And people think that's what we do when we talk about stuff. And I've had people accuse me, well, you're a high protein. You're this or that. And I'm like, no, I'm what you need.

Coach Natalie: 15:30

I'm context dependent.

Coach Bronson: 15:33

Oh, my God. I like, that better than evidence or results based.

Coach Natalie: 15:37

Oh, yeah.

Coach Bronson: 15:37

I'm context dependent.

Coach Natalie: 15:39

I'm context dependent.

Coach Bronson: 15:41

Yes.

Coach Natalie: 15:41

I like to say I meet you where you are. I meet my clients where they are.

Coach Bronson: 15:45

Same thing.

Coach Natalie: 15:45

Oh, my gosh. The number of clients who have felt like failures because they're not perfect carnivores. I had this question the other day.

Coach Bronson: 15:55

We're so far off track right now.

Coach Natalie: 15:56

I know, but I have to say this. I had this question the other day from client. Are all of your other clients 100% perfect carnivore?

Coach Bronson: 16:06

Hell no.

Coach Natalie: 16:07

I said none of my clients.

Coach Bronson: 16:09

I'm not even perfect technically. Right, right. I use mustard and I was like, not even perfect.

Coach Natalie: 16:15

Take perfection out of it. All of my clients are not carnivore.

Coach Bronson: 16:18

There you go.

Coach Natalie: 16:19

Majority of my clients are not carnivore.

Coach Bronson: 16:22

Exactly.

Coach Natalie: 16:22

So I don't know. People get things in their heads about what we are and what we do. We're trying to break down all of those barriers and show you who we really are on this podcast.

Coach Bronson: 16:31

Exactly.

Coach Natalie: 16:32

Okay, so going back to the topic again okay, wait. First and foremost, what do you mean exercise doesn't burn fat. Okay. It doesn't burn fat, people, you burn calories in a workout. Yes. But you're burning calories all day long every day in your life.

Coach Bronson: 16:55

Okay, so I love this topic.

Coach Natalie: 16:57

Yes, I know you do.

Coach Bronson: 16:59

It's math time, folks.

Coach Natalie: 17:00

Here we go.

Coach Bronson: 17:02

The paper. And I want you to if you know, if you don't know what it is, go online. If you have an in body scale, which I highly recommend everybody get, it will tell you what your base metabolic rate is. Okay? So for me, my base metabolic rate is right around 2000 calories a day. That's my Netflix and Chill Calorie burn. If I sit on the couch all day and don't do anything, that's how many calories.

Coach Natalie: 17:24

This is what you hear called BMR or RMR.

Coach Bronson: 17:27

Right? Resting metabolic rate. So for me, it's 2000 calories. Divide that by 24 hours in a day. Okay. Whatever number that comes out to be, which I don't have, I could probably do it. Whatever number that comes out to be, which will tell you just a second when we open up our calculator, okay? 83 calories an hour is what I burn on average. So if I go to the gym and I do a workout and my watch says I burned 150 calories guess what I need to subtract from that. 150.

Coach Natalie: 18:04

83.

Coach Bronson: 18:06

Exactly. So one of the reasons why I don't like counting on watches and caloric burn, just another reason why I say tracking calendars burned and that kind of stuff isn't really that effective. Yeah, it's great to say I got some activity and track your activity and.

Coach Natalie: 18:24

Honestly, it's better for the psychosomatic stuff like, oh, you feel good about what you did, so it makes you proud and it makes you want to do it again. Well, that I love. That's great if you're using it for that. But if you're like, oh, and especially with these nutrition trackers that take out your exercise extended better because they're taking.

Coach Bronson: 18:44

Out stuff that shouldn't be taken out.

Coach Natalie: 18:46

And how do you think you can eat more?

Coach Bronson: 18:48

Exactly. That's just where I was going. And that's if you're of the mindset that I'm exercising so that I can eat, which is a whole other discussion.

Coach Natalie: 18:57

Right, well, and if you're so focused on the calorie part, which we already know, because bronson is like, you just stop looking at calories. But this all to say that, yes, exercise burns calories. Just like moving around in your day to day life burns calories. And yes, in the simplistic term calories in, calories out, energy expenditure is going to determine your fat loss. In that way, you can say that exercise contributes to fat loss.

Coach Bronson: 19:31

Sure.

Coach Natalie: 19:32

But what we're talking about when we say exercise does not burn fat off your body, it particularly does not spot reduce.

Coach Bronson: 19:44

Yeah, we're talking about targeted fat loss.

Coach Natalie: 19:46

You may hear that term spot reduction is not a thing. It's not possible to remove that on your ABS or on your triceps from working out your ABS or your triceps. That's not how it works. Correct. Now, the reason why we think that it does this is because when you build muscle in an area and you're also losing body fat, now you're toning up that area as we heard that term tone. So it looks tighter, it looks toned, it looks leaner. The more muscle you build, when you lose that body fat, you're going to look more fit.

Coach Bronson: 20:30

We're turning fat into muscle, right? That's how it works.

Coach Natalie: 20:32

No. Oh my gosh, the number of times I've read that in the chat, I can never scroll by without commenting. Fat does not turn to muscle. You can lose fat and build muscle that never turns into muscle, people. It never, ever happens that way. And here's the thing. Your body is going to choose to lose fat wherever it wants to, in whatever way it wants to, and everybody's body is different. So when you're frustrated that your ABS like, oh my gosh, it says, all of my trackers are saying I'm losing fat and I'm losing weight, but I still have this gut. Why can't I get rid of my belly fat?

Coach Bronson: 21:19

Keep going.

Coach Natalie: 21:19

It's just your body has prioritized other areas and there's nothing you can do.

Coach Bronson: 21:26

And just for everybody's sense of mental health here, when it comes to this, most people lose it last around the waist and around the hips. That's most people. So you're not alone. It's not just you, it's me. I'm currently there. I've got some flabby flabby around my now granted, my waistline is the same as it was when I was 18, but I've still got a little extra stuff hanging there that I can't it's like I've got to get keep going. And my fat loss if I really want it to go down.

Coach Natalie: 22:01

And those are the kinds of things where you really have to ask yourself like how worth it?

Coach Bronson: 22:05

What's the quality of life that I would need to have to get to that point? Is it really worth it?

Coach Natalie: 22:09

There are a lot of unrealistic expectations out there.

Coach Bronson: 22:12

There's a whole another discussion that could.

Coach Natalie: 22:14

Be a whole different topic.

Coach Bronson: 22:15

The expectation and the lifestyle compared to the goal. How do you manage this?

Coach Natalie: 22:20

What are you really willing to do? I have clients who are getting quite lean. They're in a healthy range and questioning, right, you know what? This feels really good. I think I've found where I want my maintenance to be. Do I really want to keep going?

Coach Bronson: 22:37

Because here's what happens. Eventually we're going to talk about context and exercise and fitness guys, but this is what happens. A lot of times people have this random goal that they put in front of themselves and they get to about 80% towards that goal and realize they love their lives and they haven't even gotten close to their goal. And then they're like, well, do I need to hit that goal or do I kind of stay where I'm at? Because if I want to keep going, I might have to do more, I might have to focus more, I might have to put more time in that next level and I don't know if I have that in me. I like where I'm at now and I'm sustaining it fairly easily. Maybe I just want to hang out here for a little bit, which is perfectly fine. And I think for many people, if you can get to that point, that's.

Coach Natalie: 23:24

A huge that is the goal in my opinion. And then a lot of the time we see the other side of that coin. People had an arbitrary number on the scale in mind or something. They hit that number and they are nowhere near the body that they want. They still don't feel great in their body. They still have a way to go and it's like, well, I hit my goal weight, but it's not what I thought it was going to be when I hit my goal.

Coach Bronson: 23:47

Well, because the expectations of what the weight was going to be. So in that case, the expectation was off. They weren't looking at the other things. Why quality of life? What are the things that they get that they're looking to change, and they were just wanting to change their weight. So, again, getting back to the why and the goals really need to be realistic.

Coach Natalie: 24:08

So that takes us back to where we were in this discussion. The first thing you have to do to decide what exercise program is right for you is to determine what is your goal. So, Coach Bronson, how can somebody get clear on their goal.

Coach Bronson: 24:25

That'S going to be different for everyone? I think the process is really what brought you to listen to us, what brought you to start looking at information. What is motivating you to find out more about how to change your life and figure out, okay, what is it you're trying to change that leads you to what the goal should be? If you're trying to change simply because you feel like you're not happy with how you look and you determine that your goal is just aesthetic, you don't have any metabolic issues that you know of. You don't feel like you're having any symptoms of anything that you're trying to heal or fix looking at. Okay. I don't like the way that I look in the mirror. I don't feel comfortable in a bathing suit. I want to look good for my spouse or these things or my kid called me fat the other day, and I don't like that, whatever it may be. Okay, so you have an aesthetic goal that's perfectly fine. It's 100% fine. I don't want anybody oh, my gosh. There's another thing. When we talk about our goals, there is not a single goal that you can have that is wrong. If your goal is 100%, I want to have a six pack and look good in a bikini or a speedo. If you're a guy, okay, then that is a perfectly fine goal, and I will help you get there.

Coach Natalie: 25:48

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 25:48

If your goal is I want to lose£150 and be able to play with my grandkids every day and not feel wore out and hurt for three days afterwards, that is a perfectly good goal. And Coach Natan, I will help you get there. So a goal is a goal. Everyone's going to have different reasons for setting their goals.

Coach Natalie: 26:04

Nobody else's opinion has any bearing on your personal goals.

Coach Bronson: 26:09

Absolutely.

Coach Natalie: 26:10

There's nothing wrong with just wanting to.

Coach Bronson: 26:12

Look sexy as fuck 100%. Because here's the deal. If we're completely honest, there isn't a single person who's got a health goal, weight loss goal, or any where their looks don't play some percentage of their motivation.

Coach Natalie: 26:27

Absolutely.

Coach Bronson: 26:28

Okay, so, I mean, you guys look at Coach Nat, and I like, oh, my God, you guys are in great shape. You look great, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We have the same freaking issues you guys have. I look in the mirror, and I see 15 things that I'd like to change, and they are aesthetic goals. I have taken care of all of my health goals. I've reached those goals. I don't have IBS. I don't have virgin bowels. All of my injuries are gone. All the chronic, repeated injuries that I would get all the time are gone. I don't have any issues. So what is left for me? Athletic performance and aesthetics. That's what I've got. So my goals are based on what I can do and how I can.

Coach Natalie: 27:08

Look optimizing at this time, I'm an.

Coach Bronson: 27:10

Optimisation, so I'm trying to be as athletic, perform as well as I can, and look as good as I can. That's what I'm looking for right now, which, honestly, I'm glad I started this. As sad as I am that I didn't get started until I was almost 40 years old, I'm glad I've had the last ten years to work on it, and I worked on it and didn't put it off, and I actually.

Coach Natalie: 27:31

Put time into it.

Coach Bronson: 27:32

Now I'm 50, and I'm not worried about health at 50. I'm worried about maintaining physical performance and looking good from 50 for the next 2030, 40, 50 years.

Coach Natalie: 27:43

And you all, I'm very happy that he's in this place.

Coach Bronson: 27:49

That's the thing.

Coach Natalie: 27:49

I see some of the benefits of this.

Coach Bronson: 27:51

I don't have to spend the next 20 years of my life trying to.

Coach Natalie: 27:54

Get healthy, trying to get where you are now.

Coach Bronson: 27:57

I'm here. I'm ready to go. My sunset years are ready to go. You know what I mean?

Coach Natalie: 28:02

Wherever you are in your journey, whatever age you are at now, think about yourself ten years from now or five years from now and how grateful that future self will be about the steps you're taking now. Wherever you are, whatever age, you can still set yourself up for success for the next decade.

Coach Bronson: 28:24

Decades and decades and decades. Absolutely. All right, so what are some of the goals? We've established that it doesn't matter what your goal? Your goal is some of the common things that we see. Weight loss is a goal. Huge aesthetics. I want to build a body. I want to shape my body tone, whatever you want to call that. Functionality is another goal. Strength is another goal. I think those are probably the four things.

Coach Natalie: 28:51

Yeah. Functionality. Being, like, the ability to do things right. Yes. Being able to live your life, be mobile, be able to interact with the way you want to in the world.

Coach Bronson: 29:05

Okay.

Coach Natalie: 29:05

For all those things you said, performance, like, athletic performance.

Coach Bronson: 29:09

That could be athletic. Performance. That could be life. Quality of life. That's functionality, I think, kind of is a bigger I mean, we could say athletic, specifically athletic. If people are competitive, athletes and certain things, that's a whole other area, but that can kind of go through, like yeah.

Coach Natalie: 29:26

Aesthetics, functionality, and or we could say performance.

Coach Bronson: 29:31

Performance. Okay. Which could be strength. Could be sports. It could be whatever.

Coach Natalie: 29:36

Yeah. Okay. Although I don't know. Would you put strength. In. I guess strength is part of performance.

Coach Bronson: 29:42

Well, you said that because I was just going to say the one thing that I want everyone to remember about all the things that we're talking about is protein builds muscle. Muscle maintains your metabolism and keeps you strong. Strength is the number one focus of all your exercise. No matter what you're doing, you want to make sure that you're getting stronger when you're doing it.

Coach Natalie: 30:08

Yes, I love that.

Coach Bronson: 30:10

Okay. Because the stronger you are, the more utilization of protein you're getting, the more muscle mass you're building and the better your metabolism is going to function. So that is the number one marker that we look at when we say, is somebody getting healthy? That's why in my programs, when I'm working with people, we have the fitness aspect where I track your performance. We look at, are you actually performing better now than you were ten weeks ago? Because if you're not, then something's up. You're not eating enough protein, you're not working hard enough in your workout, you're not getting enough sleep. There's a bunch of things we can look at because strength drives health, strength drives longevity, strength drives survivability and physical freedom. So everything we do should be focused on getting stronger. Outside of that, then we get into the semantics in the context of, okay, how do we move?

Coach Natalie: 31:03

Well, why don't we do this? Because we talked about goals. Right. So typically we have aesthetic goals. We have people who want to get stronger. We have people who want to move better in life. And they may have specific performance goals. If they have hobbies that they want to be better at, they may have specific goals around that. I think those are the main areas of goals.

Coach Bronson: 31:25

Right, sure.

Coach Natalie: 31:26

We leave anything out of that. I still think that fat loss, weight loss, that's an essential goal.

Coach Bronson: 31:32

Sure.

Coach Natalie: 31:32

Right. Okay. So that's the goal. Let's kind of put those off to the side and then revisit those. But what I'd like to do is just let's do a laundry list of all of the different exercise modalities and things that we hear about that people are doing or interested in doing.

Coach Bronson: 31:49

Do we want to do a thumbs up or thumbs down?

Coach Natalie: 31:54

I wonder if we have similar or different opinions on similar.

Coach Bronson: 31:57

We could try that up or down. Okay.

Coach Natalie: 32:00

We'll do yay or nay.

Coach Bronson: 32:01

Or nay. Okay, so like things that we would.

Coach Natalie: 32:03

Suggest no, let's just talk about any interview. Let's throw out terms like popcorn that are out there. Right, okay, well, so then it's kind.

Coach Bronson: 32:14

Of hard if we don't quantify it because technically anything would be a yay, depending on who's doing it and when they're doing it.

Coach Natalie: 32:21

Okay, so let's first let's just do a quick fire, like all the different quick terms.

Coach Bronson: 32:27

Okay. You go first.

Coach Natalie: 32:28

Okay. CrossFit.

Coach Bronson: 32:30

Of course. I'm supposed to say CrossFit.

Coach Natalie: 32:31

I know, but I'm looking at you and you.

Coach Bronson: 32:33

Okay, bodybuilding.

Coach Natalie: 32:34

Okay. Group fitness classes.

Coach Bronson: 32:39

Okay, so would that include like, orangetheory, F, 45, Less Mills?

Coach Natalie: 32:44

Well, those are all a type that are all very similar type, like a cardio type class. Kickboxing classes would be in there. Zumba would be in there.

Coach Bronson: 32:53

So zumba and Kickboxing, I think, are not the same.

Coach Natalie: 32:57

No, they're not. But they're all the different group fitness classes to choose from, right? Yeah. So there's the group fitness aspect. You have everything from Hindson City, interval training, silver sneakers. Yeah. Well, no, that is actually a financial program. Yeah.

Coach Bronson: 33:17

I thought it was like a club. We always schedule times and people go out.

Coach Natalie: 33:22

Silver sneakers. You can get it through your insurance and it can cover gym memberships.

Coach Bronson: 33:30

I thought it was like a club you could join that would have shorts.

Coach Natalie: 33:34

Didn't when I worked at La Fitness, we would apply people silver sneakers to their membership.

Coach Bronson: 33:39

I see. I totally thought it was something different. Okay, then there's water aerobics.

Coach Natalie: 33:47

Yes. You got yoga, yoga, Pilates, dance classes.

Coach Bronson: 33:51

Dance classes, aerial arts. Aerial arts, okay.

Coach Natalie: 33:58

You got BJJ.

Coach Bronson: 33:59

Yeah. Any martial arts. Martial arts in general. And then there's sports. Right. Same people, all the different sports. Volleyball, basketball, baseball, football, soccer, bowling. Bowling. Bowling and golf. Okay. Are those two things? I don't think now granted, it's better than anything. They are physical, it's better than nothing. And if someone is going to do something and that's the only thing that they're going to do, I would rather have them do that than not doing it at all.

Coach Natalie: 34:27

They are hobbies that require physical activity.

Coach Bronson: 34:30

But they are not developmental.

Coach Natalie: 34:33

Okay, may I have to explain what.

Coach Bronson: 34:35

You mean by that? And that's another reason I probably wouldn't put sports either. Actually, there are activities. We're talking about activities? Yes. Any sport can go in as an activity.

Coach Natalie: 34:47

He just said golf was not a sport.

Coach Bronson: 34:49

No, I'm saying not a sport. Golf is a sport. I'm saying that would fall into sports as activities, not as fitness training. Okay, so if we're talking about fitness training, it needs to be developmental and progressive. It needs to help your body improve and get better at living life, at better function, improving your metabolic function, all those types of things. So doing a sport, in 99% of the cases, the sport itself is the end result of training you are performing after you've trained.

Coach Natalie: 35:22

Okay, wait, back it up now. We're talking about training, right? Because we started talking about exercise. What's the difference between exercise and training? It's a passion of mine.

Coach Bronson: 35:34

Go ahead, you can answer it.

Coach Natalie: 35:34

No, go ahead.

Coach Bronson: 35:35

Okay. Are we going to have the same answer?

Coach Natalie: 35:38

Probably.

Coach Bronson: 35:39

So exercise is an activity that you do. Training is a program you follow. Training has a goal you are trying to get from point A to point B. Exercise is basically something that builds time.

Coach Natalie: 35:54

I love that. So in my keto bikini body, six week. Shred. My first ever program, I included a bunch of mindset videos, and I talked about the athlete mindset, and I said, okay, you're coming into this. When you came into this, you were looking for an exercise program or workouts you could do. We are no longer calling these workouts. We are no longer calling this exercise. You are training. This is your training. So whenever you talk to me or ask a question in the group or whatever, it's going to be about your training. So to become an athlete and to turn on that athlete mentality, you have to consider it training. And then I talked about exactly what you just talked about. What is the difference and why we focus on it as training. There's. Once again, I'm always loving the psychosomatic side of things. When you look at it as my workouts or this exercise that I do, there's less of a commitment to that. Right. It's like, if I do it or I don't do it, I didn't get my workouts done this week. I didn't exercise this week. But when you consider it your training, there's a different level of ownership you take over that and commitment you take to it. Now, not doing your training is not as much of an option yes.

Coach Bronson: 37:16

Because it means more you're connecting it.

Coach Natalie: 37:19

To your why and to your identity.

Coach Bronson: 37:21

Yeah. When you just look at it as a workout, then it's just something that's on your schedule that you can move.

Coach Natalie: 37:27

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 37:28

And it probably will get moved if you look at it as, this is my training. That's why when you hear me talk, I talk about my training time. If you're watching my videos, I'm talking about my training. This is what I'm doing. It's non negotiable. It's going to happen.

Coach Natalie: 37:44

Absolutely. All right, how do they know which one to do? Which one to do?

Coach Bronson: 37:51

Okay, let's break up some of them into categories. Okay, so if you're looking for functional fitness, then you're looking for something. We could define each of these a little bit. Let's help you figure that out. So functional fitness, when we're looking at functional fitness, we're looking for a program that's going to help your body move in as many different ways as possible. It's going to help improve more than one metabolic pathway. So that's some of the differences you're going to see. These are the three main differences.

Coach Natalie: 38:21

My eyes glass over when he talks about the scientific term.

Coach Bronson: 38:23

Yeah. We're going to see the main differences between all of these types of workouts has to do with how your body moves, how your body uses energy, and then how your body develops, let's say primarily from a straight and muscular perspective, or hypertrophy, let's call it. Okay. Because there's a couple of different ways we can talk about the different hypertrophies and how it works. All right, so a little exercise sciency, how your body moves. There's seven different essential movements all different ways that our body moves. If you want to be as functional as possible, then your program needs to include all seven movements, right? Pushing, pulling, squatting, hinging, lunging carrying, twisting, all those things. Functional fitness, like CrossFit, F, 45, less miles, those types of things work in all of those different movements. Bodybuilding does as well, but it does it differently in where it's mostly a lot of isolation and muscular focus, not movement focused.

Coach Natalie: 39:25

Well, that's the biggest difference. And there's a difference between a functional fitness program and a bodybuilding program. A bodybuilding program is set up. It's focused purely on aesthetics. It is building and shaping, building and shaping the body, right? So when we program a bodybuilding training program, we're looking at splitting up the body into different body parts. You hear the term body part split. What is your split? When somebody's asking what is your split? You will see workouts that look like chest day, leg day, arm day, or push pull legs. You'll see that a lot of the time.

Coach Bronson: 40:13

But even I was going to say.

Coach Natalie: 40:16

Even then, the push pull legs kind of thing is pushing is typically chest and triceps, triceps, back and biceps would be a pull day, things like that. So we're usually splitting into body and we're programming based on body parts that we're trying to grow.

Coach Bronson: 40:33

Yeah, the difference from a functional perspective is we're looking at movements. So it's more like most of the movements, if not all of the movements in a functional fitness program are going to be multi, joint, multi, full body type stuff, clean and jerks, deadlifts, squats, burpees, like things that are moving your whole body all of the time and focusing on you're still going to build muscle because there's still resistance and things like that. But it's a different type of focus and it's not necessarily body part specific because you're doing some part of all of your body every time you go in and do it. So there's some differences there. The other difference we talk about metabolic pathways is when you're doing functional fitness, you're going to do some stuff that is just strength, some stuff that is five minutes long, really high, intense, some stuff that maybe 30 or 40 minutes long at a moderate to low intensity. So you're getting all the different types of fuels and ways your body accesses energy.

Coach Natalie: 41:33

In a bodybuilding with bodybuilding, what's interesting is we really compartmentalize cardio and lifting. So your training program is going to be usually pure lifting and it may incorporate some cardio aspects. Let's say you're a bikini competitor and you have circuit training in there. So now you're doing multiple, it's still a body part split, but you might be doing arms, chest, chest buys and tries and shoulders or something all in a circuit. And you do like four or five exercises in a row and then you do the circuit multiple times. That may be a more cardio intensive type of bodybuilding, but your bodybuilding, your lifting weights in that session, typically our cardio is separated. So we will be doing either low intensity, steady state cardiology workout or later in the day, where we're talking about maintaining our heart rate at a certain level for 30, 45 minutes, an hour. Or we do high intensity interval training like sprinting or sprint intervals or on a bike or something that's pure cardio separate from our listening session, usually different.

Coach Bronson: 42:54

Times of the day or separate. Those are some of the differences. Now, these are the two main things that we're talking about, functional fitness and bodybuilding. If you want to throw in can.

Coach Natalie: 43:06

I call this bodybuilding? Versus.

Coach Bronson: 43:10

If you want to throw in another modality of power lifting, it's similar to bodybuilding, but it's different. And it's also similar to functional fitness, but it's different. So we talked about powerlifting that is specifically designed to get you as strong as freaking possible. And really, there's three main things that you're doing. As strong as a squat as you can get, as strong a deadlift as you can get, and as strong as a bench press as you can get. Three main lifts when you throw power lifting into the mix. Now, what we're doing is we're kind of combining the isolation or the splits of bodybuilding, but focused on strength development, not aesthetics.

Coach Natalie: 43:55

And I saw a great TikTok on this, too, where they talked about power lifters. Don't talk about chess day.

Coach Bronson: 44:02

Correct.

Coach Natalie: 44:05

It's bench day.

Coach Bronson: 44:07

It's bench day.

Coach Natalie: 44:08

Right. So they're going to talk about it differently. They're going to talk about it as the lift, the main lift. They may be doing some isolation movements on that day. They may be strengthening that whole muscle, but they're not going to call it back day.

Coach Bronson: 44:24

Exactly.

Coach Natalie: 44:24

Right. They're not going to call it buys and tries or whatever. They're going to call it Bench day, deadlift day, squat day.

Coach Bronson: 44:32

Exactly. And that's a great analogy or observation of the difference in mindset. Right. You talk to a bodybuilder. I work biceps today. I work chest today. I did quads, I did interior chain, I did posterior chain. I did whatever it is, it's all.

Coach Natalie: 44:47

About describing where in the body they.

Coach Bronson: 44:49

Were, where in the body they work. And that's really good. I like that. That's huge. Okay. Yeah. For power lifters, I'm benching today. Okay, now, you know what, they may not even bench that day. They may do flies, they may do dumbbell bench. They may not do barbecues that are supporting bench. Supporting their bench press. Yes, it's all things that are supporting bench. So it's kind of cool. I like that. I don't think I've ever noticed that before.

Coach Natalie: 45:13

Right?

Coach Bronson: 45:13

It is kind of cool. Okay.

Coach Natalie: 45:15

And CrossFit, they're not going to tell you what day it is because they may not even know. They may get to the gym. And it's the wad brush.

Coach Bronson: 45:24

They talk about what was the workout, right? This is the workout that we did today. And then they just go through all the stuff that they did and you're halfway through. You're like, I lost you at what you're saying?

Coach Natalie: 45:36

I lost you at wall ball.

Coach Bronson: 45:40

Okay, so where was it? So powerlifting so powerlifting has spoken specific on building strength. So some of the differences we'll just say compare between bodybuilders and power lifters. You get into a power lifter, may do bench press workout, and they're going to do three sets of 15 reps in their bench.

Coach Natalie: 46:00

Where we're talking about rep ranges and volume.

Coach Bronson: 46:04

Yeah. And the difference is in how you build muscle. Where a power lifter may do a set of bench press workout and they may do eight sets of two reps, right?

Coach Natalie: 46:15

Very different.

Coach Bronson: 46:16

Very different. So they're getting a lot of volume in, but it's very different. Where the body builder is working to max effort and trying to get as many reps as possible at that weight and just completely tax out their muscles. The power lifter is trying to work on executing their reps with as much speed and power as possible, with enough stimulus to develop the central nervous system aspect of the lift to be able to increase, to be able to increase the weight. Because it's about the central nervous system, not necessarily about the muscle. It is, and it's going to help them get stronger. And there is a muscular hypertrophy aspect, but it's a lot more about the sense of nervous system, which a lot of people don't realize.

Coach Natalie: 47:02

And I think that will be a topic for another day too. We could call that episode. You can do more than you think you can.

Coach Bronson: 47:08

Oh my God. We talked about that today.

Coach Natalie: 47:10

We did.

Coach Bronson: 47:10

Oh my God. Yeah. Okay, so there's some differences there. And then on top of the difference in bodybuilders are working physiology. Power lifters are often working much more central nervous system than people realize.

Coach Natalie: 47:24

So here's a good question that we hear a lot, right? How many reps should I be doing to get to my goal? Or what's a good program should I be doing? Three sets of ten? Everybody just wants the answer, right? Like, what's the best way to do this? And once again, we would have to ask you what is your goal first and foremost, right?

Coach Bronson: 47:51

What experience do you have? How long have you been training? What have you been doing? All the same things.

Coach Natalie: 47:55

I would say power lifters are a special group of people who know who they are. If you are a powerlifter, you're probably not even listening to us, to be quite frank. You're not going to ask what program you should be doing. You probably already have your program.

Coach Bronson: 48:14

You have a coach, you're following somebody, right?

Coach Natalie: 48:16

You're working toward that.

Coach Bronson: 48:17

Well, but unless you're new and you don't know, I mean, we do have people who are just getting into bodybuilding who follow you and do stuff. There could be people who are interested in paralleling and don't know exactly what to do. So there's some things and you can help on the body building side, I can help on the powerlifting side, we.

Coach Natalie: 48:34

Can do short thing I know we wanted to say was, if you're looking for if you're specifically like, you know, okay, you know what? I think I want to get into powerlifting. Go and find yourself a powerlifting coach.

Coach Bronson: 48:49

Yes.

Coach Natalie: 48:50

Don't go work with a bodybuilding coach or a CrossFit coach or a functional fitness professional to become a better power lifter. So these are the kinds of things where you need to find a professional who's skilled in what you are trying to do. Right. If you're a basketball player and you're trying to get better at basketball, you're not going to go to a football coach, right?

Coach Bronson: 49:18

No, I would hope not. And that also goes for, I think, more prevalent. Prevalent? Which one is it?

Coach Natalie: 49:25

Prevalent.

Coach Bronson: 49:26

Prevalent. The more prevalent issue with that and the applicability of context is where you're getting your information online.

Coach Natalie: 49:36

Right.

Coach Bronson: 49:36

And this is part of what went into our discussion of why we wanted to have this topic is because we see people all the time who, like we were saying on Tick dock, there's tons of people that have good information and tons of people that bad information.

Coach Natalie: 49:48

You have to consider who are they.

Coach Bronson: 49:51

Who are they, all of them and.

Coach Natalie: 49:53

Who are they talking to?

Coach Bronson: 49:54

And who are they talking to? So if you see somebody on there saying, here's how you do a squat, or here's how you do it, the most common one I see is bench presses because there's 8 million different ways to bench press.

Coach Natalie: 50:04

Oh my gosh.

Coach Bronson: 50:05

The arch, right? The arch. No arch, hand placement, elbow movement. Should I where does it start?

Coach Natalie: 50:11

Do I need a lifting bag?

Coach Bronson: 50:13

That's a whole other equipment. So when you see someone who's giving an example of how to do a movement, understand where that's coming from. Because a power lifter is very likely going to teach a movement differently than a bodybuilder, absolutely differently than a CrossFit or functional fitness coach.

Coach Natalie: 50:33

Oh my God.

Coach Bronson: 50:33

Physical therapist. A physical therapist. There's tons of great physical therapists on the talk movement and some of the stuff they're talking about, a bodybuilder would never do.

Coach Natalie: 50:41

That's so true.

Coach Bronson: 50:42

And this is a physical therapist, somebody who specializes and has years of training and degrees in how the body moves. A bodybuilder is going to look at that like, there's no way I can do that because it's not going to activate this very one specific muscle in the back corner right on my right trap that I'm trying to activate.

Coach Natalie: 50:58

Well, and also, look at this. What we get so much is about people with their injuries, right. A lot of the time, just like when, look, I'm a nutritional coach, I'm a bodybuilding coach, a body transformation coach. Right. But I'm not a doctor, and I'm not a physical therapist. I'm not a chiropractor. So when you're coming to me and talking about your injuries, yes, I want to know about your injuries, because I don't want to be giving you a program that could be aggravating them that I don't even know you have that. So you do need to tell me about your injuries, but most of the time, I'm going to tell you, okay, if you're getting a lot of pain, if this is what you're going you need to go see a medical professional. Go talk to a physical therapist, go talk to a chiropractor, go to a medical doctor, and find out what's happening with your physiology. Just like if you tell me about all of your medical conditions, absolutely. I need to know about your medical conditions for nutritional therapy, for your nutrition program. But I'm not going to tell you how to cure your medical condition. I'm going to ask that you, first of all, make sure that your doctor knows what we're doing. You're keeping your doctor in the loop, but when you're having all kinds of symptoms and you're dealing with a medical issue, then I'm also going to tell you to go get advice from your.

Coach Bronson: 52:22

Doctor and understand that the advice you get from somebody is going to be based on their goals but their expertise. So if you have someone who's only an expert in A and your goal is B, you might want to look for someone who's got some expertise in B.

Coach Natalie: 52:39

And it's important to have a team.

Coach Bronson: 52:41

Of professionals, and that's kind of where I was going. There are some of us out there, some of us out there who have expertise in A-B-C or D that can help you in multiple different scenarios. So you don't think that everyone is just one thing. Some of us have years of experience doing a lot of different things.

Coach Natalie: 53:01

Right.

Coach Bronson: 53:01

And if we don't have expertise, like, for instance, I'll do myself. I have expertise in ABC or D. Okay, well, let's get specific. I'm a CrossFit coach. I'm a powerlifting coach. I'm a weightlifting coach. I'm a functional movement specialist. I'm a kettlebell coach. I've got a handful of things that I can coach you in. Okay? I can work on all sorts of goals nutrition, mindset, behavior change specialist, all these things. If you have an eating disorder, I can't help you, but I know people who can. If you have food addiction issues, I can help you some, but I'm not a food addiction specialist. If you have a health like, you're saying, a medical issue. If you have autoimmune and you're like, I need to cure this today, I can't help you. I can help you fix your metabolism, which is going to help that. But if you need some specific stuff for that, I can't help you. But I know people who can. So that's another aspect of when you're looking for someone to work with or following a program or getting information from somebody, not only what expertise do they have, but how big is their network and what can they put you into absolutely. To get the help that you need.

Coach Natalie: 54:12

There's nothing wrong with having a team. There's a difference between having a team of professionals and then having five different of the same type of professional that you're going to and getting conflicting advice and now being confused. So if you are going to work with a coach, work with that one. Once you decide to work with a coach, work with that coach. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a doctor and you shouldn't have like, let's be logical about this. Right. But at the same time, what I ask my clients to do once we start working together is stop listening to every single voice out there in nutrition trying to tell you all these different things when you've been given a specific program already. And the same thing goes with fitness. If you're going to a coach, if I've already written your program, and then you're out there on the Internet looking at all of these different exercise programs, and you're like, well, should I try this or should I try that? You've been given a custom program for you. Give that a chance.

Coach Bronson: 55:17

Or you have a program that you've used. I get this a lot. People do the challenge. My ten week challenge will do other programs to work with me for a couple of months, and they'll do the program and have amazing results. And then when they end working with me, for whatever reason, the challenge is over. Their time that they work with me is over, something will happen, whatever. And then it's like, now what do I do? It's like, well, my programs are still accessible whether you're working or one, you were doing it and it was working.

Coach Natalie: 55:46

Right.

Coach Bronson: 55:47

Why are you looking for something new now? Just because.

Coach Natalie: 55:50

It just that's a great okay, so that's a great thread. Part of this questioning what you should be doing, the great answer is, well, if what you're doing is working for your goal, you don't need to change it.

Coach Bronson: 56:03

Yes.

Coach Natalie: 56:04

And if you're changing it just because maybe you got bored with it right then, oh boy. We've talked about this as it relates to nutrition before.

Coach Bronson: 56:12

Success is boring. Success is boring.

Coach Natalie: 56:16

Usually it's the boring work that's going to get you to where you want to be. If you are not enjoying what you're doing anymore, then I think you need to sit down and do a little digging, a little soul searching. Like, if you're not happy in your marriage anymore, what would you do? Go look for another partner?

Coach Bronson: 56:39

Bingo.

Coach Natalie: 56:39

Immediately? Or would you sit down and say, okay, let's figure out why I'm not happy in my situation anymore. And see what's going on with me. Maybe there's something in the relationship that needs to be fixed. Same thing with your fitness program. If you've lost the love for your fitness program, identify within yourself what's going on with you. I know for me, with bodybuilding, after a long prep and I've been on this program, my program right now, my training program has not changed since I started with my new coach. I've had the exact same training program almost all year. I think it was maybe April that I hired him. I mean, the workouts have not a single exercise has changed. I switch up the equipment from time to time because I work out of a commercial gym and I can't always get what I need in there.

Coach Bronson: 57:33

Purple people eater.

Coach Natalie: 57:36

That purple place that shall not be mentioned. We do not want a sponsorship from them.

Coach Bronson: 57:41

No, not at all.

Coach Natalie: 57:44

There's a little tip there. If you are getting bored with dumbbells and you've been doing nothing but dumbbells, like try a kettlebell, try cables, you could try a different equipment, but do the exact same exercise and branch out and learn some different things.

Coach Bronson: 58:01

Yeah, there are ways to make a program. If you feel like the program, you're just getting tired of doing the same program, there are ways to make it to switch things up and add some variety. But if the program is working, I don't understand why you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Coach Natalie: 58:16

And here's another great example. I now have added cardio because I'm nine weeks out and we're getting close, but I'm loving it because it's less, it's low intensity, steady state. So yesterday I went outside and took a walk outside and talked to my mom on the phone while I was out there. And it was so therapeutic, it was beautiful, it was just what I needed. I love being outside. So for me, and I know many of you are the same, you don't like being inside a gym, right? So if you're a bodybuilder and your main goal is aesthetics, you're going to have to be in the gym. So either you can start building your home gym out of your garage to have some of that, open things up a little bit, do some things outside. If you can add some things and some activities that are not a part of your training activities or hobbies that you enjoy that will give you that variety you might be looking for and you can still stay consistent with your training.

Coach Bronson: 59:17

And honestly, this is just the truth of the matter, guys, is if you're chasing excitement in your workouts, then your goal is off.

Coach Natalie: 59:29

Just like if you're chasing excitement from your food.

Coach Bronson: 59:34

The work isn't supposed to be exciting. It's called work for a reason, okay? The results in living the life that you want from doing the work is where you get your excitement and your satisfaction from it's.

Coach Natalie: 59:46

Just like anything. Else in life. Sometimes our work life is very satisfying and motivating and exciting. Other times we just got to do what we got to do to pay the bills.

Coach Bronson: 59:58

And I'm not saying that it's always going to be drudgery, because it's not.

Coach Natalie: 1:00:03

No.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:04

There are many times when you go to the gym and while you're working out, you're like, I feel like a freaking monster right now. Or you may not feel like that when you're there and when you're working out, but when you start walking to your car and you get home, you just feel so freaking good. So there are aspects of the work that are good and beneficial and emotionally satisfying.

Coach Natalie: 1:00:25

Babe, have you seen the TikTok? I think it's TikTok or YouTube.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:30

You don't watch a lot of TikTok.

Coach Natalie: 1:00:33

About the rule of thirds.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:35

Yes, we talked about that.

Coach Natalie: 1:00:37

Oh, my God, I saw that one again yesterday and it resonated what you're just saying here. This is what we're talking about. It was an athlete talking about the rule of thirds, and it was one of her coaches and what her coach told her, and he said she's like, what's the rule of thirds? He said you should feel great, amazing a third of the time, okay? A third of the time and shitty a third of the time. And if any of those get out of whack and it's all one way for too long or all another way for too long, something is wrong. You got to look at that. When it's right, we're always like, well, what's right for me? When it's right, there will be times you're not going to feel great about it because it's going to be challenging you or you may be really tired of struggling.

Coach Bronson: 1:01:28

Convenience kills guys. Don't go for convenience.

Coach Natalie: 1:01:31

Yes. Well, and think about it. What is a good training program going to do for you? It should be challenging you. It should be moving you to new levels. So there's going to be times where you're hitting PR and you're feeling really amazing about yourself and your confidence is through the roof. There are going to be times where you're not progressing, you're just barely getting it done.

Coach Bronson: 1:01:52

Okay, this is a great segue to the other thing we said we want to talk about here, and that is the mental game of understanding where you are and working from there.

Coach Natalie: 1:02:01

Okay.

Coach Bronson: 1:02:02

There's going to be times like she was just saying, there's going to be times where you're working and you're not seeing the progress and you're like, struggling. This is hard and I don't like this. And why can't I not do X, Y, or Z or I just go week today or whatever it may be? And you got to understand that development takes time. Those times are the times that are actually making you better.

Coach Natalie: 1:02:24

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 1:02:25

And you need to embrace the suck, literally, and move through it, because before you when you're feeling that crappy time. That 30% or 33%, a third, whatever you want to call it. That crappiness. That means the really cool stuff is right on the other side.

Coach Natalie: 1:02:42

Yeah. That is where and I said this to a client the other day, I was like, oh my gosh, imagine how proud of yourself you're going to feel when you get to the other side of this thing and you conquered it. Right. We see this all the time. People who have been doing the same exercises over and over again because those are the exercises they feel good doing. And they're probably also doing the same weight. They're not increasing any weight. They're not increasing reps. They're not doing anything. It's just you've been doing these three sets of ten bicep curls with £10 for the last three years because that feels easy to you, it's comfortable to you.

Coach Bronson: 1:03:18

Are you doing something?

Coach Natalie: 1:03:19

I know how to do it. I feel good about doing it. But you hate lunges and you never do lunges because they don't feel comfortable to you and they're annoying and your balance is off and you feel like you can't do it. And let's be real, that sucks. I don't like feeling like I'm not good at something. Right. But those things I'm not good at are the things I need to do that are going to make me capable. And then when I can start to do them and actually do them well, and now they start to feel easy, I feel amazing. And that's where that amazing 30% or one third happens.

Coach Bronson: 1:03:59

Yeah, absolutely.

Coach Natalie: 1:04:02

So don't avoid difficult things. Don't avoid things that don't feel good to you.

Coach Bronson: 1:04:07

You know, the best way to keep from avoiding stuff is to hire a coach and get a program that tells you what to do.

Coach Natalie: 1:04:17

Yes.

Coach Bronson: 1:04:18

If you are trying to do it on your own, you're figuring out googling, what workouts are best for my arms, or what workouts are best for this, or what's the best full body, you're going to miss things, number one. Number two, it's not going to be progressive because it's not designed in a way to help you improve overall. It's just a random workout you found on the internet or saw some influencer do on social media. So getting a coach or following a program that has a coach available or something is definitely a way to help, again, control your environment, control the input you have into what you're doing so that you know it's going to get you to your goal a lot faster.

Coach Natalie: 1:04:58

And then guess what else? Instead of being on your own to try to figure it out when you're confused. Or you can't do a movement, right, which is usually why you're not going to do the movement. If you have a coach who wrote a program for you and you're struggling with something they wrote for you, you can reach out to your coach and say, hey, I really can't get this. What am I doing wrong? Or how can I improve this? And your coach can then give you specific personal feedback about how you can improve on that.

Coach Bronson: 1:05:28

Right. And that's something that you need to understand, especially if you're new and you're not getting started or just getting started. Excuse me. Or like we talked about before we started this, if you've been an athlete before and you're just coming back into it, it's been five years, six years, ten years, 20 years since you did anything physical and you're starting over. You need to understand. Come in it with a beginner's. Mindset clean, wipe the slate clean. This is where I'm at right now. You cannot compare where you are now to where you were 20 years ago.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:00

Oh my gosh. You're going to have to let go of that image of where you are.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:04

Because it's not who you are right now. You can't start today, 20 years after the fact. Right? It's today is today where you are, where you are.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:16

And then celebrate every improvement at this point.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:19

Exactly.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:20

And guys, don't sleep on body weight exercises and bands existence.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:29

And let's talk about scaling real quick, okay? Scaling and modifications.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:34

Oh, like progressions.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:35

Progressions. Regressions and progressions. Okay, I'm glad you said that because a lot of people think scaling is just going down.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:45

Okay?

Coach Bronson: 1:06:46

But it's not.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:47

No, it's not.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:48

It goes both ways. Progressions and regressions.

Coach Natalie: 1:06:51

First of all, I just want to clarify that body weight movement does not mean easy movement.

Coach Bronson: 1:06:58

Hell no.

Coach Natalie: 1:07:02

Just because you don't have weights in your hand does not make it a beginners or an easy exercise. Even with let's say you didn't pick up any weights for a year and everything, let's say you don't have access to them. Right? A lot of us were in this situation in 2020 when everything was shut down. We couldn't get the gyms. And if you didn't have equipment, it was like, good luck finding it because it was bought out so fast. So you're at home, you don't have access to any equipment. You just have your body. You could do a whole year long progressive training program just with body weight, and you could progress. I had somebody recently asked me this. Can I reach my goals if I'm not lifting weights or if I'm not in a gym? Absolutely.

Coach Bronson: 1:07:48

Sure.

Coach Natalie: 1:07:49

You can get stronger, you can grow bigger muscles, you can change your body shape, you can improve your functional fitness, all with just your body weight. And there are modifications you can do to progress yourself without having to pick up anyways.

Coach Bronson: 1:08:04

Yeah, for sure. When we talk about progressions and regressions is what the traditional terms are introduced, I don't know if they introduced it, but they popularize the idea of scaling, and it's basically scaling up or down based on the skill level or physical ability of the athlete. So an example is if we look at squatting, basic squat. You put weight on your back, and you squat. It's a basic squat. When we talk about doing it with resistance training, a regression scale would be no weight, just your body weight. A further regression from there would be squatting to a box where you're not completely standing free in the air. You have a box to sit, and a box.

Coach Natalie: 1:08:53

Squat is so amazing for getting the basics of movement.

Coach Bronson: 1:08:57

So that would be a progression would be maybe a front squat where the bar is in front of you and your shoulders instead of on your back.

Coach Natalie: 1:09:06

That is a whole different ballgame or.

Coach Bronson: 1:09:08

An overhead squat or something like that. So these are more advanced techniques within the same movement of squatting. So the idea is, whatever program you get, whatever you see, you get from your coach, whatever else, you have the freedom and the obligation for your own safety and progression to take control of that and modify and scale. If you don't know how, ask your coach the obligation.

Coach Natalie: 1:09:36

That is powerful.

Coach Bronson: 1:09:37

You have an obligation for yourself.

Coach Natalie: 1:09:38

You have to take ownership of your program.

Coach Bronson: 1:09:41

Absolutely everyone's like, well, it's an individualized program. It should be built just for me. Well, guess what? I don't care how much information you share with your coach. Even an individual program is at some point in time going to have something that you can't do because of a physical limitation, a lack of movement, weakness. Something is going on. So you have to communicate with the coach and say, hey, I have this limitation. How can we change this to make it work for me?

Coach Natalie: 1:10:10

Oh, my gosh. I have to brag on one of my clients right now. I'm so thrilled with her. She's the poster child of what I say all the time, which is, I want you to not need me anymore. Like, at the end of our six months together or one year together, I want you to be able to move on and do this on your own. And she has just from day one, it's been difficult for her. She's faced the difficulty. She's asked me all the questions every step of the way. If something was difficult for her, we modified it. And then it was like she started to really figure it out. And that was the coolest thing, because then she would be asking, okay, I didn't have access to this equipment, so I tried this equipment. Was this the right way to do it?

Coach Bronson: 1:10:52

Yeah.

Coach Natalie: 1:10:52

Instead of just coming to me and asking me first, she tried it on her own. And she asked me, and I was like, yes, you did that perfectly. Love it. And she's like, okay, I want to start being able to swap out exercises or swap out equipment when I need to. I want to be able to continue this after we're done. I was like, I'm beaming. I'm like, yes, she's getting it. She's taking ownership. She's learning how to program for herself. It is the coolest thing to see.

Coach Bronson: 1:11:21

Absolutely. Now, if you guys could see the smile on Coach Nat's face right now when she's talking about I want you to understand and I think we'll probably leave with this because we're about an hour and ten. We could probably go on for more. But I want everyone to understand that the reason we're doing this podcast is because we want you to have information and insight into how to make all these crazy ideas and methods and concepts and information work for you. We want you to learn how to fish so that we don't have to fish for you, okay? Both of us, our goal with our clients, whether you're working one on one with Coach Nat, working one on one with me, if you're in my challenge, if you're subscribed to my app, whatever it may be, we want you to graduate from us so that you can do this on your own. Because freedom is not just physical. Freedom is not just health. But freedom means you can make your own decisions and know that the decisions you are making are good for your life. Okay? We will be here, we will always be here to help you and give you advice if you need it. And you call us and ask us and look at our content and all that kind of stuff. We're not going anywhere. Okay? But we want you to be able to stand on your own. 2ft. Take control of your life and move forward without us.

Coach Natalie: 1:12:36

Oh, my gosh. I couldn't have said it better, so.

Coach Bronson: 1:12:39

We'Ll end on that. Well, do you got anything else to end with?

Coach Natalie: 1:12:43

I think that's it really summed it up beautifully. Own your journey, people. Own your body. Own your journey.

Coach Bronson: 1:12:50

And make sure you apply the information you're getting to your life. Make sure when you apply the information you're putting into your life, you apply some context and you understand where it's coming from and who it's coming from and who it's meant for.

Coach Natalie: 1:13:06

Oh, and the most important thing, do something you can't just research. So please, if you're the person out there that's just looking at every single exercise program, you can find out there and comparing them to each other and then watching ten different professionals break down how they do the movement, just try something. Please. Just try something.

Coach Bronson: 1:13:34

Just go try something. And then if that doesn't work, try in the water. You can't go wrong if you keep trying. So if you try something and you're like, I didn't like that. Okay, great. Go try something different.

Coach Natalie: 1:13:46

Yeah. And you know what? I think Coach Bronson said this on another episode, but if none of this sounds appealing to you and you're not moving your body right now, brainstorm a list of activities you enjoy that require physical movement. If it's walking outside, if it's doing some stretching, something. If it's taking a dance class. A lot of people start with group fitness because it's less intimidating to them. There's a group full of people in the room doing it with you. There's good upbeat music going on. And you build a community, you make some friends, and if you're not doing it right, nobody notices because there's a packed room for you.

Coach Bronson: 1:14:33

Everyone's trying to do it right, too right.

Coach Natalie: 1:14:35

It's like do something that gets you moving to start with.

Coach Bronson: 1:14:39

Yeah. Awesome. All right, guys, take it easy. We'll see you on the next episode.

Coach Natalie: 1:14:44

See you next time.

Coach Bronson: 1:14:45

Eat, lift, repeat.

Coach Natalie: 1:14:47

Lift, repeat.