Listener Mailbag Vol. 13

because it works. It works at one of these questions. I'm so excited too answer because it goes to extremes, it goes to human condition. Ah, so it's gonna be good. It's always good. And what I love when you reach out. You know, it takes a while to get a new show.

Started doing this for a couple of years now, but I've had radio shows in the past done similar things, and you get a sense of who your audiences and you guys are the best of the best, the smartest of the smart and you reach out, oftentimes throwing studies at me, which I love, so keep it coming. Today for this show, it's five questions, but within each question,

as you guys often do. There are some with multiple so probably around seven or eight total questions all over the map, which I love as well, nutrition, strength, all that kind of stuff. So let's take a quick break and I'm going to jump right into it. Your questions, listener, mail back show number thirteen. We will be right back. All right, We're back. Any time I say we it feels weird, but I feel like it's it's us. It's

the proverbial us. And this is a community, a community of like minded people you are, who are trying to better their lives. And these questions go to that jump right in question number one. Hi, Tom, I love your show and I've been listening to it for about two years now. Thank you for listening. I'm curious how you feel about the company, and I'm not going to name it. I bought their drink powder, which they claim is filled with vitamins and benefits. I bought it for the digestive benefits,

the energy it provides in the morning. I try to drink it instead of coffee three days a week, and for the recovery claim. So I'm gonna hit on all three of those points. I struggle with recovering from one workout before my workout the next day. So I'm down to trying anything at this point. Have you tried this product leaving the name out or heard anything about it? I like having something to drink in the mornings after

my workout or to kick start my day. Do you have any alternatives that are good for recovery slash not filled with sugar what this person is referring to, because there's many powders out there, many supplements. It's a green drink, a green drink, And yes, I have tried it. I don't ever talk about anything that I haven't experienced. It's rare in the fitness world. But I want to be able to give you a real take on it. So use it, have used it, I should say. And there's

a bunch of questions in here. I'm going to flesh them all out. And I think the overarching theme in this question is recovery. Right, this person brings it up numerous times for the recovery, they're looking for other benefits. They perceive other benefits as well. Uh, and I use that word specifically, perceive. But they say struggle with recovering from one workout and down to try anything at this point. So let me say this, There's there's so many myriad

factors for recovery rate. I don't know their workout program, so I'm curious are they overtraining? So these are questions I would ask, and I need to ask, and anyone UH in this business needs to sit down with people. And there's no answer. There's no right answer right away. That's that it depends I talk about frequently. It doesn't mean I can't answer all these questions, but I need to preface it by saying that as well. Right, why is this person that tired? Is it just normal fatigue

from exercise? Are they getting in enough calories? That's a huge part of training people. This is why we need to focus on what we are eating, not what we're not. We need to fuel our bodies. I know it sounds so simple and so boring and so common sensical, with the vast majority of people don't do it. They don't fuel themselves with good food. We focus on what we can't eat rather than what we can. We are confused. It just did that fit tip show about what a

carb is. Most people don't even know. That's a huge problem. It's a huge problem with fueling. It's a huge problem with you know, losing weight, it's a huge problem with recovery. So we need to know that stuff. And that's why I bring you those topics as well, and we'll contin hinue. You're not gonna get it or you know it, understand it, or be able to apply it right away and talk about these concepts over and over and over again. But

a bunch of questions in here, right. I have to say, whenever there's a supplement, which a powder is, and a green powder is as well, real food first, real food first. There is nothing that is out there right now that can take the place of food in its natural state. It's an overly simplistic statement, but it but it holds true. In other words, and I've done shows on this as well. You can't put fruit in a capsule form and think it's fruit and think it's the same thing. It's not.

It's not it's not even close. We're not always think of the Jetsons. Grew up watching cartoons and the Jetsons was one and if I'm not mistaken, this was a while ago. The food was like it was tablets, like it was like, here's your fruit, and and it's crazy to think that that was decades ago, and now I would argue a lot of snake oil type supplements are out there. They've been there out there forever, and they

will continue to be out there. Telling you that this takes the place of no supplements are an adjunct too, So get your greens from kale and salads and you know, celery and different green forms of whole foods and real food first. Does that mean there isn't a time and a place for a good powder supplement like this, Yeah, of course, but we have to start with food first, super super important. All right. Now, let me go through the claims right that the this product is putting out there.

Uh they claim, I'm reading again from the question, is filled with vitamins and benefits. Vitamin. Sure, you know that's for me. I did the show on my favorite supplements. Vitamin is one to fill the gaps. I'm gonna try to get my vitamins from real food as often as possible, but I take a multi vitamin in case I'm missing something, and I give my kids a multi vitamin and have since they could swallow them. Okay, Uh, so that's that's an important thing with this. Yes, there's vitamins lost my

train of thought. I was gonna say something, oh dad dud um, But the benefits so filled with vitamins and out of it. So let's gonna look at the benefits that this person is talking about. Digestive benefits. That's that's an individual thing, right in other words, tough like gut health and and you know, there's so many other things we're taking in so it's really hard to pull apart whether that works or not. But if you think that

works for you with digestion, awesome, Okay, the energy it provides. Now, so often they will talk about products that aren't caffeine related or things like that, touring and things that we know are stimulants, but they'll say, oh, this provides energy. Like again, vitamin vitamin in and of itself doesn't provide energy. Now, we could go into like the chemical processes these vitamins may help with that help make energy available. But I am not someone who would say that a product like

this gives you energy. You may feel better, right, you may not take in, you know, eat something that's less healthy, and there may be the placebo effect, but just chemically speaking, ingredient wise, these type of products don't generally give you energy, although many people claim and again, if if you feel it does, then it does. I still haven't done after hundreds of EPISO, so it's the placebo effect episode and I will soon now because I have to, all right,

So I'm reading it again. Energy it provides in the morning, so this person believes it does, so okay, it does, and they're drinking it instead of coffee, which I'm a huge coffee person, did multiple episodes on it. Uh, there are huge, you know, many health benefits of coffee documented studies. So if if you drink coffee, don't feel guilty. It's

moderation like anything else. I tend to overdo it. But listen, if this person is cutting out coffee and drinking this product and they have energy, awesome, awesome, But no, that coffee has health benefits. And if you want to know more about that, listen to the shows I've done so far on those and for the recovery claims. So this goes to energy, right, So the claim about it providing energy a powder, a green powder, and then helping with recovery,

I'm gonna say maybe maybe, and I'm being nice. Okay, So this person is struggling with recovery. Right, I would not take this product for recovery. I would take this product to fill in the gaps. I would take a green powder to fill in the gaps of getting in your greens, full stop, end of story. Okay, And what let me say one mother, one other thing. When you take products in like this, you feel it's it's control and its habits, and you're saying, I'm doing something good

for myself. Now, this particular brand is expensive, Okay, I would I would much rather you spend at least a significant portion of that money on actual greens. And the problem is people don't like if you're spending this amount of money and it's it's not insignificant, which, by the way perceived value people go, oh, if it's that expensive, it must be worth it. Now. A lot of times, yes, you get what you pay for. But in the health and wellness world, that is a slippery slope. All right.

So food first, does it do give you energy? If you think it does, I'm not going to argue with that. Recovery, I would much rather you do other things to recover. We're gonna finish up with that, all right. So back in the day when I was first getting into the iron Man's and the endurance races. I would take a store bought powder for recovery. Okay, I'm not gonna give you the brand. I don't even know if it's out there anymore. I don't take it anymore, okay, But it

was a certain restio of carbohydrates to protein. So that's where we're gonna end up here. Okay, when it comes to recovery from your workouts, what do I do? What do the top athletes who are competing do. Sure, they'll they'll take a powder like this, but they are refueling. They're refueling. You need energy, You need fuel. And this is why I will hammer that message about eating real food over and over and over again, regardless of who

you are. And one of the questions that's gonna come up towards the end is just about aging and eating. And so many of the messages apply to everything. The the instructions, the guidelines, the basics will come up again and again for good reason. All right, So I would tell this person again, not knowing their workout routine and all that kind of stuff that I would love to know as well, but when you are done with the workout, I talked about the metabolic window recently doesn't exist, maybe

maybe not done matter. I'm gonna refuel right after, especially when I'm training really hard, to make sure that I'm recovering from that workout with food and preparing my body for the workouts to come and the day to come, not just the workouts but the day. So four to one ratio of carbohydrates of protein. They're products that are five to one, six to one, seven to one, but roughly four or five to one ratio of carbo high

drates to protein. So that means you're gonna take in a bunch of carbohydrates and a little less a quarter less if it's the four to one ratio of protein. So the carbohydrates are to replenish your energy stores and give you energy for the day. The protein is to rebuild muscle that has been broken down. And you want to do that from healthy, whole sources, whole food sources if you can, and you know there are so many options.

By the way, I don't think I've really talked about my sports nutrition book for triathletes, but this is a great example of the rules applied to everyone. So, in other words, if you want to know what to take that book. Regardless of whether or not you're a triathlete, the recovery meals applied to everyone everyone. Carbohydrates and protein. Yeah, if you're a bodybuilder, you're gonna take in more protein

and things like that, but you still need energy. And so one final uh, a little caveat to this answer. I always say I'm gonna go shorter, but I always get carried away because I want to give you as much information as possible. A power shake, which one of the greatest options. Whether you buy that a pre dune shake which has some carbs in it and some protein, or you do it yourself. This is where it's such

a great time to make your own power shake. So that's frozen fruit for me, a banana, protein powder, and some healthy fats. I control the ingredients, their whole ingredients. They're super healthy. I who love the taste. You figure out what works for you. I use almond milk as the base, So you figure out your base. What's the liquid, what do you like? You figure out your fruits. You know there's mangoes, so you can put greens in there. That is an awesome way to recover. Recovery is about

food and sleep and some stretch. All right, all the other stuff I talked about like cryod therapy and infrared zenas and focus on food and sleep and some stretching. All right, there you go. I want to do five more hours on that answer, but uh, that's enough. Number two. Hi Tom, following the podcast for years, Thank you again. I'm a runner half dozen of fulls, so he means full marathons and a number of halves. Your information has been extremely helpful over the years. Thank you very much

for listening. Uh that's my response to him. But by the way, I have a fourteen year old son who has been working out for about six months and as a nice V shaped body. He asked me what workouts are best for him to bulk up. I've explained eating right and exercising and moderation is the best. My question for you is what is a good workout plan for him? He has dumbbells, a bench and a bar to use, as well as a stationary bike. I can't get him into running right now, but I'm hoping we can get

out there one day and run a half together. I love that. I have looked online but don't see the best option for developing body. I would appreciate any advice or website to check out for him. Thank you and keep up the great work. I love this. I love this. I love the so much of this. The dad who's you know, wants to get his son the best results. That doesn't seem like there's any excess here. He's preaching moderation.

He says, he wants to get him running. It's tough to get a fourteen year old running if they don't want to run. I have a fifteen year old right now, who's this very person, same person, So I love it. I love everything about this. The short shortish is there is. It's the basics. It's the basic. You have everything you need. You have dumbbells, you have a bench and a bar and a stationary bike for some cardio for the warm up,

and from there, at that age, anything is great. I want you to be safe, you know, I see you know thanks to Instagram. This is why I bring it up frequently. The crazy workouts and you know, the Olympic lifts that so many people are doing that they don't have the proper instruction and there's just a greater chance of injury. So stick to the basics. I'm gonna pitch another book. You know, this is why I write the books though. So I have a book called Beat the Gym.

It's older, and The Micro Workout Plan is another one. And actually these are gonna come up again. But these are two books. One has more machines in it, beat their machines in it. Uh, micro Workout Plan doesn't. So my two books are super helpful, Micro Workout Plan and Beat the Gym. But you know what the basics are, right, someone at fourteen, You're gonna break the upper body into five parts right chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps. So you're

gonna do some dumbbell chess press, barbell bench press. You're gonna do some shoulder exercises, overhead shoulder press. You can do some bicep curls. You're gonna do some tricep kickbacks. You're gonna do some push ups. Uh. And I say, you but him to do squats, lunges, the basics. And then finally the question is how many days a week is he gonna work out? My son just started going to the gym, his access to all my equipment at home, but of course he wants to go and be with

his friends. That's awesome. That's awesome. He's going, you know, almost every day now. So if your son goes every day, he's going to do a split routine, right, maybe chest, shoulders, triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday, and then you repeat it with one day off. If he's going three days a week, it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Full body. But just the basics. Everything else is awesome.

Make sure you don't push it too hard. Let him do his thing, make sure he's using you know, appropriate weight, good form, and then we just let them do their thing. I love it. I love it. And finally, protein, make sure he's getting in enough protein. When I was that a each, they had products supplements that were supposed to put on size and there wasn't enough protein. They were like calories. It's just it's not half of the good

stuff that's available today. Real food. First, and let me also say that I make an enormous breakfast for my two boys every day, protein, healthy, carbs, huge. Do they always finish it? No, but it's always there. I didn't. I had to finish it all right, So I love it. Stick to the basics. If you want you know, beat the gym and micro workout plan are two great options. You know, so much of the information out there, unfortunately, is extreme and it's not what you need, especially at

that age. You don't want to get injured at a young age, especially. Uh, And unfortunately people tend to push the crazy workouts. All right, so you're right on track. You're preaching moderation already. Uh. Let's take another break, and when we come back, when we finish it all up. We got questions about the seventy five Hard Challenge, which I had heard about, but I hadn't looked into till I got this question, and then a couple of other really good ones. All right, quick break, we will be

right back, and we are back. I am going over your questions that you put out to me through direct messages or emails. There's actually a second half of this question, so let's get right to it. Same person asked, I was also wondering if you could do an episode on your opinion of the seventy five Hard Challenge. It seems to be very popular, but to me unsustainable. I have a friend who is about to partake, and I'm curious on what you think I took my breath away. Not

surprised made me sad? So what is the seventy five hard Challenge? Five components? I looked at it. I hope, I hope this is what it is. But this is what I found, uh. Number one, So there's five components to it. Number one, Follow a diet, any diet. I'm gonna give you the five points. I'm gonna go back and talk about each of them. Number two. Work out twice a day for forty five minutes. One of those workouts must be outside. Number three. Drink a gallon of

water daily. Number four read ten pages of nonfiction daily. Number five take progress pictures daily. Okay, let's start with number one. Follow diet, any diet? Really? Uh it didn't. You didn't get me at the start? Really, no, no specifics, So follow a plan. So what if I follow the grapefruit diet or the cabbage diet and you're you're then asking me in number two to work out twice a

day for forty five minutes. So if I follow a or a low car, let's just go low car and atkins a keto or people gonna grab diets are low calory, full stop. Especially the first couple of weeks. Then they tend to add calories back in so that you have a small chance of doing it longer than a week or two. So you're asking the people right off the get go to limit their calories and probably in an unhealthy way. Then you're asking them to work out toys

a day for forty five minutes. The fast majority of people who aren't working out once a day for forty five minutes. It takes my breath away. Then you go, okay, one of those workouts must be outside. I did you know the podcast on the bio philia effect, how powerful exercising in nature is. I get it. I talked about how I run outside in rain storms, in snowstorms, unless it is dangerous, I'm outside exercising. I'm the exception. I get texts and emails from people who say, what are

you doing? It's also usually part of my training. But my point is there are people who aren't going to be able to get outside every you're setting people up for failure. There's such So I did an episode on two days too, why you should work out twice a day but not for forty five minutes every time for seventy five days? Like are you kidding me and then putting that caveat of one must be outside. Awesome awesome. So for those people are starting from zero, that's not

problematic at all. And what drives me up the wall is the mental side of this. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because it's so goog and I listen. I love the questions you keep. You have to throw these questions to me because although I hear about everything, there's so much lunacy out there that I can't possibly read every book, although I will the top ones even though I know that they're lunacy, because I need to be able to discuss them with people.

So please, please, please keep these questions, these type of questions coming twice a day for I don't do that. Well, I kind of do, but I have rest days. There's no rest days in a row. Awesome awesome. There's no problems there right now. Again, I didn't delve any deeper into this than getting the bullet points, so I'm not sure if there's any specific It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if they say walk, if they if I told you to walk twice a day for forty five minutes,

for seventy five days. That in and of itself is this lunacy. I wish I could tell people to do that, but even if I could, it's not what you need to do, all right. Number three, drink a gallon of water daily. Okay, I'm all for drinking more water. I need to drink more water. I know where my limitations are, what I need to work on. Whether the favorite things my favorite sports psychology professor said was if you want to know your weaknesses, ask your competition. And that got

me to focus on what are my weaknesses? And you've got to be honest with yourself. For me, I have several I been working on them for years. I will never be perfect at then you can't. You know, you can't work on your weakness till it becomes your strength. It's not you can't. You probably shouldn't did that podcast. Anyway, I don't get in enough water. I don't sleep enough, and that's a problem. So I don't sleep enough at night. So I try to take naps during the day because

I can in my studio and things like that. But I know my weakness is anyway, one gallon. Let's do the math. The current recommendations all over the place. But simple rule of thumb is roughly half your body weight in ounces per day for most people. That's even a lot for me. What am I now around seventy ish? So yeah, I've got my two bottles and I struggle. And there's water in other things, and in other drinks

and food, fruit and salads. There's water and food. So this blanket recommendation is roughly for someone who's two hundred fifty pounds. I mean, I just picture the bodybuilder guys who walk around the gym with their gallon of water. I get it. I was there at one point. I don't think I ever carried it around at the gallon. But we need to drink more water. This is like saying everyone should take two uh yeah, eight pounds and do bench pressed with that. It depends people. It's probably

too much for a lot of people. Drink more water, but I would start, especially if you're like me and you know you have the bladder of a four year old. Sorry to be you know, yeah, I have a problem, But yeah, I don't think everyone needs to drink a d and twenty eight ounces every day. Leave it at that number four and five. I have no problem with it's like, okay, let's make this creative read ten pages of nonfiction daily. Awesome, kind of cool, awesome, out of

left field, but okay, do that. And number five and again I didn't delve very far into this, but I having been in this business a really long time, UM, I think I know one of the reasons, and it's not for you. So take progress pictures daily. I'm fine with that as well. But it reminds me of a Body for Life way back anyone who's my age and was into fitness. So this was many years ago. Bill Phillips, who who was one of the first to come out with creatine and a bunch of other products. Uh ma

a plex was the protein powder, super expensive. Creating was like five acts what it is today. But he got you on this plan with a bunch of different supplements, and he asked you to take pictures and then he asked you to send them in and one person was gonna win. It's like a Ferrari and a million dollars or something. But it was genius because he got free advertising. He got people to just send it at no question, and so we put all of those before and after

pictures in books. In his books, and a lot of people changed because they had these expensive supplements and there was a workout plan and a lot of people stuck to it and it was a good plan. But I think of that as I think of this. So a lot of people are gonna do what's gonna take progress pictures post on social media and they're gonna talk about the seventy five challenge. And I don't know if this person is monetizing it. Sure they are, would I would

think they are. I haven't delved into it. Uh, But kind of genius in that regard, because if you do anything, if you I could sell you caplets filled with sugar and then give you a plan, and I sell those caplets to you at a hundred dollars a month with the workout plan. Because you're paying a hundred dollars a month for these caplets that I'm telling you are going to help you. But you follow the plan, you can attribute it to the caplets. That's what a lot of

these products and programs are doing. All right. So seventy five days of working out twice a day with no rest days, drinking that much water, uh, oh my gosh, following some restrictive diet the person's question, answered it, answered it unsustainable. Of course. Yeah, and you're going to I'm going to use the word other people would use. I Wouldn're gonna fail. There's no way you're gonna keep this up?

Could I do it? It's a want to you know, the people like you go it's likewise come up to me in the gym and asked me to do some crazy exercise challenge with them that I know could potentially hurt me. I look at them and I say, you win, you win, So don't do this. I'll leave it at that, all right? And oh, actually, why why is the human

condition to choose hard and unsustainable? You know? When I tell people that they should do micro workouts, they look at me like, I'm like, five minutes that that can't possibly work. You know, I'm gonna give you your own Here you go, here's your thirty day Fitness Disrupted challenge. And I've given you similar things like this in other episodes, but here here you go. You want something. I want you to do fifty push ups total in one day. And I've given you things almost exactly like this. But

now with this question. Not all of you have heard all of the episodes fifty push ups on one day, fifty ab moves, crunches or types of crunches, whatever version you want on the next day. So want you to alternate days and you can do however many sets and reps as you want, but they don't need to total

fifty by the end of the day. I've been doing this myself in a different way, as I've said many many times before four years when I came into the studio, I dropped and did my hundred crunches, five of one kind o weeks, both sides, and twenty five of another kind. And I mixed that up and I changed the number. But it's a hundred. So by the end of the day I've done a certain number depends. All right, there's

your challenge. Most people go, it's not enough. Why do we choose hard and unsustainable rather than what we know will work over time when you add in all the other stuff as well. All right, So there you go. I want to hear do it. Do it for thirty days. So you can do five sets of ten to tend when you wake up in the morning, tend push ups to ten in the middle of the day, to ten at lunch, do ten at like three o'clock to ten

before you go to bed at night. There's fifty or do two sets of twenty five whatever we want, the way you want to do it, ad moved, same thing, whatever kind, whatever numbers. By the end of the day, you've done fifty. When you mix it up, when you vary them, I don't even care if you're doing this already in some wait do that, do this, and and vary the type. You can also vary the push ups. You can do spider Man push ups. You can do whatever you want. Watch and see the results. You will

be shocked. All right. Number three, let's get moving here. Uh Tom love flitness disrupting the body weight workouts you prescribe. I've also have your latest micro workout book. Is the workout from your book? Beat the Gym still worth doing? I love the philosophy of experimenting with different forms of equipment. Thank you. All right. You may think this is a latent plug. It's not. It goes to variation, people, It goes to variation. So beat the gym. It's two ten,

I believe. And that's when I owned the gym. We said I would never do it. Crazy experience, crazy opportunity arose, and when I say I have done it all, I have literally done it all in this industry, including only a gym for a couple of years. So that book was all about how to get the most out of the gym, the secrets having worked in the gym as a trainer for so many years the group fitness instructor personal trainer than owning a gym. And we did it for a couple of years and got the heck out,

wrote the book. Uh, and then the micro workout plan, So beat the gym is more about the gym, and the micro workout plan is more about home. And I do both. So the answer to this person is variation. When you want to exercise at home, it's a micro workout plan. You get dumbbells, you got body weight, and you got ab moves right and body weight cardio and all the stuff like that. I do both. I go to the gym, I work at home. I do all different types of equipment. So this is having options, do

it all, mix it up. Any time anyone in the nutrition world the exercise world tells you this is the one way to do some thing that's wrong. It's rare that I could say without knowing what it is. It's wrong. There are many components of fitness. There are many benefits to machines that free weights don't have. There's many benefits of free weights that machines don't have. I've talked about it. I will continue to variation. This is what people have to do to get a name for themselves and sell

certain products. Not me. I sell the moderation and the variation. All right, I'll leave it at that. Another question within this question, I'm in my sixties, still running. I want to enter a half marathon soon. One last question, I've been doing hit running workouts in a fairly quick long run every ten days. Can you recommend some kind of running program that incorporates all your strength protocols with low

mileage running that can work for races? Thank you again, tough um to give real specifics, but I can be kind of broad here because it again applies to just about everyone. So persons in their sixties still running awesome ages and number. I'm gonna be again pretty give you an overview. So I'm in my fifties now, I run three to four times a week. Changes, but for most people, especially sixties, probably again, this person sounds like they're super fit,

but it doesn't matter. We want to be smart. So when you can nonconsecutive days, if you have more lofty, you know, lofty your goals, then you have to run more. But great rule of thumb for the vast majority of you is Monday, Wednesday, Friday is running right, and then a longer run on the weekend Saturday or Sunday. So that might be the day you go back to back right, or you can go Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. So three to

four runs per week. And I like the specificity. Now you don't have to do this, but this is when you get super specific. As we get older, especially the benefits are even Yeah, the workouts are shorter and the the benefits are somewhat greater. Right at a younger age, you can just run and your body is more tolerant, you get injured less. So for me, one run is hill's hill. Repeats talked about that the value of hills. Second run, we focus on speed. That's your interval day.

Sounds like he's kind of doing it. And then your third one is endurance that's your long run day. That formula works for so many people. Hills are speed and strength built in speed is gonna make you a little faster if you want. And also listen changes the workout the boardom factor. I did a thirty minute workout. I'm gonna post thirty minute run on the treadmill the other day. Ten minute warm up, a bunch of minute hard intervals and then cool down. Awesome, and it was so much

more palatable. Okay, just running for thirty minutes, and I said, just I shouldn't running for thirty minutes. The specificity the effect of that was different than going slow for an hour. But that's your longer day. So one day is working on endurance, one day is working on speed. The other day is speed strength, and that's running hills and hills, as I've said, are one of my favorite workouts. Everyone should run or walk hills. I did a podcast on that. And then you want to add in two to three

twenty minute or so strength workouts. I have other books with that in there as well. You know it sounds like, but I have a marathon book and a triathlon book with strength workouts that are specific to runners and multi sport athletes. They're not the same as if you're trying to build a physique you're not focused on bench press and bicep curls. If you're a runner, still can do them, but we're more bulletproofing our body so we can run, working on balances, more lower body focus, more of a

core focus. All Right, They're different and they're shorter. Generally, you know, bodybuilders and people who want to build muscle and physic you know, improve their physique probably go to the gym or work at at home a little longer. For us who are focused on running and doing other sports, the basics at least are you can do them totally, uh in about twenty minutes, all right, So that's uh,

that's what I'm gonna give you for that. And finally, a cross training day super important, you know, and for runners, biking is just one of the greatest uh forms a cross training. The elliptical fine, I'll take that swimming, but biking and running, you know, you've got quadricept dominant and then hamstring. So it's one of the reasons I do triathlons, is forced cross training. All right. Let me pick it

up here, Hi to. I'm a big fan of your podcast and your no nonsense approach to health and thitness. Really passionate about fitness and healthy eating and have often considered getting certified as a this coach. Well, now that my kids are all grown up, my career and I t is not very demanding. I have more time to dedicate towards my passion. I would really appreciate your guidance on which programs are worth investing in. I briefly looked at the n A, s M and ACE websites, but

there are so many others out there. I would greatly appreciate any input you can provide, and then some compliments. So thank you, thank you, Thank you for all the compliments, Thank you for listening. And I actually get asked this frequently in different ways, uh people who are in the business, and I will do a couple of podcasts soon specific to that. But I got certified a long time ago and they're all still around and they're really good ones.

So my goal back in the day was to get as much experience and education as possible, as many of the top certifications as possible, and two of them were and A s M the National Academy of Sports Medicine ACE, and the other two of the top there's other top ones, but these for me are the four. Top ones would be the n s c A National Strength and Conditioning Association, and then A C s M American College Sports Medicine. I have all those. They're still around, they're still great.

There are others, but those four again, N A s M, ACE A C s M and n s c A. I have many others. There's atha that actually changed their acronyms slightly. Used to be a F A A and now I think it's a F F A. But that was that was more aerobics. I got that one. That's a story that it's a funny story. Back in the day when I got that was group exercise. Right, So those four are phenomenal. The short answer though, for the new ones, and then there's a couple out there that

I've heard of recently that aren't those four. If you get it in a day, if you get it online, that's a problem. So the longer the studying, the more classes, and the more in person, the better. Right, I would personally stick with those four. They're still around, they're still highly regarded. But if there's a certain certification that is in person where you are and you go every weekend or you know, it's it's you know takes a couple

of weeks months of instruction. That's awesome. You want as much information as possible, right, You want to learn, and if you're truly passionate about it, as as I was and still obviously am, you never want to stop learning. You know. That's why I'm still and we'll always be studying and teaching and doing all that kind of stuff. So I love this question. I love people getting into the greatest industry in the world, in my opinion, helping people look better, feel better with longer. But I take

it super seriously and I love that you do. So get some start with one great certification, and just know that they generally focus on kind of one aspect or at least known for that. Now within each certification certifying body, they'll have different certifications. But like a cs UM was more the cardiovascular back in the day, at least I know they have additional certifications. Now. National Strength and Conditioning Association was more the strength side, as was the National

Academy of Sports Medicine more the strength training side. And you get taught differently by different certifications. So just start somewhere and then take it from there. I should say this and gets a little complicated. But if you are going to work or you want to work at a specific gym in your area, find out what they require, what they're looking for, because that's a whole Pandora's box

of goofiness and stuff like that. So oftentimes you can get a really great certification that maybe the gym person who runs the personal training department doesn't have, and you can hold that against you. As crazy as that town topic for another day. But if you are trying to land a specific job, find out what their recommendations are and which certifications they're looking for level level levet. Finally, I love this one. I'm a new listener, so glad

I found your podcast. Could you tell me if this is credible? So they sent me a study. There's a link to a study which I'm going to talk about and thank you for that. As I said, I love when people send me studies. Seven years ago, when I turned fifty, I asked my doctor what I needed to do to stay active and healthy because I've never been this age before. I love that line because I've never been fifty before. I just saw me yesterday. By the way, it said something like, I'm you know, bear with me.

I'm going through my terrible forties like the Terrible twos. So I love this. Yeah, I turned, as I said, I just turned fifty three. It's interesting. I love getting older, though I do all the work we put in right control. Um you, age is just a number earlier it at that, uh, because I've never been this age before. She was at a loss and basically gave me the regular nutrition and

exercise guidelines. I'm an off road motorcyclist and trying to recover from rotator cuff surgery, and I'm sational aspects of retiring. I've been trying to do research on age and fitness and nutrition. Thank you for your shows. You've given me the encouragement and the information I trust. Thank you for listening. I gotta say that over and over again. People, it's

all about trust, and your time is important. And as I say that, I'm gonna try to wrap this up, but know that even when I go along, it's because I want to give you the best information, and I often feel like I'm leaving stuff out. First of all, there's so much here. I know that oftentimes, like when you hear your doctor give you the regular nutrition and exercise guidelines. We have to start with the basics. So

she's not wrong. She's not wrong, and let's just go back for argument's sake to the the basics work for just about everyone. So the nutrition guidelines about like whole foods and you know, everything I preach all the time, that applies to just about everyone. That's where we start. Then you have you unique requirements, right, So that's the twenty or thirty percent, right, And for you you said

specifically off road mode a cyclists. By the way, I've written motorcycles road bike in college, did a little bit off road. That's like really hard, that's super physical. So like these people, especially the top ones pros, they strength trained like crate. You have to brutal on the body just banging around, right, So I somewhat understand that. And you're trying to recover from rotator cuff surgery the only surgery I ever had thanks to football back in the eighties.

No injuries since then, and so I get that as well. But I also love that you said the emotional aspects of retiring. Okay, So the basics are where you start nutrition as well as exercise, right, especially in our fifties, right, the basics work the basics work you know, the push ups, the planks, the dumbbells, the bench press, the dumbbell all that stuff. Do you need to have the foundation right, and then we get specific, But you have to have

that base. You can't jump ahead. You can't start doing plyometric box jumps or doing to minute workouts a day for seventy five days. If you don't have a base. It's not a matter of if, but when and how badly you're gonna flame out. All right, so your doctor is without even knowing exactly what she said, she's right. But let me get into that specific study you gave to me. And by the way, I'm going to go into this study because it's a great one in the

future podcast. But there's three great bullet points that will answer his question to some degree, and that the study is it's not really a study. I think it was a paper from I think it was a paper from a lecture a nutrition forum. But anyway, it's the title is how Dietary needs Change with Aging. And I'm going to read you the three bullet points I pulled out.

Dietary needs change with aging in several ways. Number One, people become less active, their metabolism slows, their energy requirement decreases, all of which means they need to eat less. Does that apply to everyone? Know, but we lose muscle, sarcopenia. Right, you're probably not running around And again these are generalizations, but normally people slow down a little bit, they lose some muscle, and so yes, we need to eat a

little less as we get older. I think of my father in law, who you know, as I'm making huge breakfasts for my teenagers. If he's over you know, he's British, he has one, maybe two pieces of toast with with coffee and some jam, and he's happy as a quam. But yes, by and large, we need fewer calories as we get older. So that's one of the dietary needs, especially when we're thinking about maintaining weight. Right number two.

Recent research demonstrates that because older adults ability to absorb and utilize many nutrients becomes less efficient, their nutrient requirements, particularly as a function of body mass, actually increase. Uh this, I don't want to read you everything here, but this includes separate recommendations for people age seventy and above for this reason. So what they're saying is you should eat cleaner,

you should eat better as you get older. I mean that's oversimplification maybe, but that's kind of the gist there, all right, And then number three kind of goes to this as well. Tucker noted that as some of the previous speakers had discussed, chronic conditions and medications can affect nutrition requirements. For example, in addition to drug nutrient interactions affecting drug metabolism, some drug nutrient interactions are also nutrient wasting.

This is especially true of the B vitamins. So again, in a nutshell, this is saying people are taking more medications as they age, you have to be very careful with interaction with those drugs and what you are take in topic for another day, specifically, but basically saying fewer calories and the high to focus on higher quality of food. So let's just then there, that's where the recommendations apply to everyone. Whole foods, as healthy as possible most of

the time, focusing on the basics, focusing on consistency. Now, this person also, I can't end without saying that they identified the mental aspect, the emotional aspects of retiring. I love that that you know that that's so important and so you want to move and you want to use exercise as a positive not a negative. So it shouldn't be a stress or it should be a stress reducer, and that can be and should be walking. That's why not walking. Whatever is, you can start with walking. It

could be a part of your plan. My point is it shouldn't be extreme, like two minute workouts for seventy five days. When you're doing things that you don't enjoy, that are restrictive, and that are too much, that's not the right thing, especially when you're dealing with emotional issues already, which all of us are right. So my point is used the exercise too decrease stress and anxiety, not increase it, because you're trying to do something that is unsustainable or

is too hard to maintain. And this person finished up by saying, always hated working out. Now I'm about to turn fifty and overweight, and I'm really happy to have found your podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank all of you for the questions. Again, I feel not always feel I go way longer than I expect to, but it's

for a good reason, all right. I am going to go further into this um paper because there is other there are other great points in there, but I will wrap it all up with it is the basics, the the basic tenets of focus on consistency of all these things that I am bringing up over and over again. That's it. I believe it at that. All right, thank you for these great questions, great questions. You are the greatest audience and I have the greatest job in the world,

so I appreciate you. I appreciate my job and I take it super seriously. So thank you for listening. Please keep the questions coming. I want to hear more about crazy things like the hard sev Oh jeez, it makes me sad again. If you want to reach out Tom h Fit Instagram as well as Twitter, Tom h Fit Fitness Disrupted dot com, you can email me through the website. I know I talked about I feel guilty. Why should I feel guilty talking about my books. They're out there

there to help you. But that's how much I like. I don't like the fraudsters who pushed their their products. I have a bunch of books and and take a look. Depending on what your goals and needs are, they're there, uh and uh. I have done and live by every single thing in all of those books. All right, And as I said, super excited for the new book Working on which is my first non prescriptive book, which is uh, it's all about the fitness industry. All right. Thank you

for listening. And remember there are three things we all control. How much we move, what we put into warmouths, and our attitudes. And that is awesome. I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.