The New Perimenopause Weight Loss Approach | Tara LaFerrara

25:21And there will always be a point where you will be able to do more. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to lift more weights. You can put more time under tension. You can add more reps. You can slow things down. You can shorten your rest. So progressive overload in some capacity. But there has to be this challenge with the muscles in order for them to grow. Now you said the Pilates versus strength training. Let's talk about that. Yeah. So the difference really, I don't, I'm going to start with Pilates is great. If you like Pilates, please do Pilates. However, there is a difference between Pilates, muscular endurance, and strength training, building strength in your body.

26:03Pilates is more, on that muscular endurance side. It's 12, 15, 20 reps. It's a lot longer holds. And you're just not putting enough tension on your muscles to see that growth and increase your bone density. So is it absolutely amazing for your core stability and longevity of your body? Yes. However, it does not provide the same load that strength training does. So it's complimentary, but it's not strength training. Yeah. Well, I am a big fan of Pilates and I've been using it. After both of my children were born, it was part of my pelvic floor rehab, then going through endometriosis excision surgery.

26:43My PT, I work with her. I swear that's harder than strength training or anything else that I do. Tiana, you know. But the Pilates portion, I work with a physical therapist once a week to rehabilitate my core because they had to cut through my abs and go into my body. But also women who have endometriosis, adenomyosis, a history of childbirth, a history of pelvic floor injury, a history of sitting, we all have trigger points in our pelvis. And something that has been really interesting in my journey of coming up. So I'm in my 40s. I want to do Pilates because the number one reason why women go into nursing homes is for urinary incontinence.

27:23I do not want that. But I also want to make sure that my core is bracing my spine and my body so that I can lift heavier. Something interesting that's come out of this is that there has been, I was just saying this to my husband, since my 20s, I get on and off knee pain. And I have done everything. And I've seen physical therapists for that and all kinds of things. And we finally figured out that my knee pain was actually a radiation of pelvic floor trigger points that were going on. And so in working on my pelvic floor, it has alleviated IT band pain, knee pain. And so that's something whenever I see people bagging on Pilates, I'm like, hold up because Pilates is so important for the foundation of your core.

28:09And especially I think when you're in your forties and older, if you do not have a strong core, you are one movement away from a back injury, especially if you're somebody who is picking up children, picking up animals, picking up groceries, like doing these basic day-to-day activities, you can really have an injury. And so, you know, and that's my like whole why I advocate for Pilates. But as you were saying, like you need to have the strength training as well, which is why my routine is Pilates once a week. And then it's strength training, usually three to five days a week that I'm fitting in.

28:43And the cool thing about what you're saying is that I think you can do a lot of those things with strength training work, with mobility work, with core stability. And you can get a lot of that through strength training. I just don't think people really put those two together, which is unfortunate. People think that a squat is a squat. I'm just using my quads, but a squat, if you're holding the weight in front of you, there's so much core activation. We're working our biceps and our shoulders and our quads and our pelvic floor and our trunk. There's so much glutes. There's so much happening in that.

29:11And so if you can find that tension through your whole body with a goblet squat, I think you can still get a lot of that stability and strength that you're looking for in your trunk. However, I do think that Pilates does a really great job of explaining in a way that makes sense. And I'm not going to glaze over the fact that I will recommend every woman in the world to go see a pelvic floor therapist. That was a huge game changer for me. I was experiencing some incontinence and I've never had a child before and I learned so much from it just by going to see them and understanding that it's not just Kegels.

29:44Yeah, no. Yeah. And actually, I shouldn't be doing Kegels because, you know, so it's so important to do that. Absolutely. But you can really see a lot of that strength stability through intentional mobility and strength training. So I think Pilates is for a lot of women the first time they ever actually learn to activate their core properly. I was a group fitness instructor instructor through my twenties. And I think about how people would come into my classes and I have given them all the cues to activate their core. And yet I think what people really need is more of that one-on-one because, you know, a lot of people go right into obliques, not getting into the transverse abdominis, which, you know, we love the obliques because it's our girdle.

30:25Like Kim Kardashian could never, if you have strong legs, but, um, but there's so much more to it. So for people who are like, well, I don't want to go to Pilates. I can't afford Pilates. If Pilates is not accessible, how do you recommend that they engage their core that they are actually, because I think so often people are doing squats and they're not thinking about their core. I think a lot, a lot of the times people are moving through life, not thinking about their core, right? Like you think about when people lift things and people always say, lift with your legs and not with your back. And it's like, but your back's going to be involved.

30:58Like it's, it's almost a, you know, people got the same mindset as medicine is if we can compartmentalize the body and be like, I'm going to lift your legs. Nothing else is happening there. And yet most of the movements we're doing, we're engaging multiple muscle groups throughout the body. So talk to us about how you walk through clients engaging their core. Yeah, this is a great question. I forgot who I learned this from, but think of your, basically think you have a smoothie straw from your throat all the way down to your pelvic floor. It's like one of those like really thick ones. And you're trying to suck out the last like banana at the bottom of the cup.

31:34And so that's how I would transition into like feeling your core because you're really pulling up and in to be able to feel everything around you, to feel your whole trunk. I like to have like a banny pack or a belt or something on your waist so you can actively feel that. I'll definitely cue it like from a lying down on your ground, like you're setting up or bridge where your knees are bent and you can have your hands kind of braced around your stomach. A lot of people think it's just like, brace like someone's about to punch you. But the only time that would be really beneficial for women is when you're doing like a one rep PR.

32:09And that's not how most of us live on a daily basis. So if we can imagine the banana coming up through that big smoothie straw, we can really suck up and in and pull everything in together. I love that you say the pulling up. There is, I think his handle is the glutes doctor. I don't know. He's like, I think a Scottish man who's hilarious. Okay, yeah, I've heard of him. Anyhow, but his cue is that you want to brace your core like you're about to sneeze. And I'm like, you working with women, I think I know you don't have a vagina because you say that because most people bear down when they're going to sneeze, which is something that can lead to incontinence.

32:51So I love that you talk about that pooling up. And, you know, for people listening, you know, we often think like exhale to brace our core, but the pelvic floor, and I learned this through years of going through pelvic floor physical therapy, the pelvic floor also needs to relax with the inhale. And that's like a second piece that I think a lot of women are missing is they think so much about the brace, but then there's also the release. And that's something I've been trying to be more intentional with my exercise lately is, so it's just been through doing body scans that I realized that while I'm exercising, I never let the muscle go to relaxation.

33:32Like I'm working my glutes and it is like tense and tenser, tense and tenser. And I'm like, I have to let it relax. Why is it so important to let the muscle relax before engaging again? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think of it being like rest periods. Why do we rest in between sets? And it's really the same thing. We've got to make sure that our muscle is fully recovered. Now, this is an interesting question because I think of like a glute-emphasized RDL or a glute-emphasized like GHD. Okay, you got to tell people what this happened. Oh, yeah, sorry. An RDL, Romanian deadlift. So if you have two dumbbells in hand, Romanian deadlift is where you stand up.

34:13You start from a standing position. You bring the weights down. You hinge from your hips. Think about sending your butt back like you're closing a door with your butt and you've got something in front of you. You stop the weights right below the knees and you stand up. Glute emphasized means that there's more bend in the knee so that you get more flexion and extension of the glutes. And so if I think of that specific exercise, sometimes I actually won't fully come up and I'll keep that emphasis around my glutes so I can have that time under tension the whole time. Which is like a squat would be, you know, maybe one or two seconds.

34:45If I'm doing eight reps of that glute-emphasized RDL and I'm never, ever recovering, that's like 16 seconds of time under tension with your glutes. So I think it's kind of twofold because you can actually absolutely do that if you don't have adequate amount of weight and you want to really focus on your glutes. However, you can also hold your breath a lot. And that's where kind of like some of that like bracing of the core comes into play where if you, you know, don't have that release or if you're not exhaling, that's where maybe your lower back comes into play or you're using other parts of your body that maybe are overcompensating.

35:23So it's a give and take. You can do either, but I would say if you have a lot of weight that you're using, standing up in between each Romanian deadlift or glute bridge is really helpful for that. So you can keep the time under tension and then have a rest period between sets. Yes. Or you can contract and relax with each repetition. And what you're saying is that if you don't have a lot of weight, then better to keep the time under tension. If you're trying to challenge yourself with it, absolutely. Why else will we lift weights? Some people just go through the motions, unfortunately. And yes, you are absolutely correct.

36:08Why else would we do it if we're not trying to challenge ourselves? Some people just kind of go in and do the thing because they know they need to check it off their list. Yeah. Or they have a certain amount of time or you're just going to do the thing. You know, not every workout has to be the hardest workout ever. But if you don't, if you only have a short amount of time, like putting in that work in that amount of time is a lot more beneficial. Yeah. And I also think that some people are going through the motions because it's for mental health. Exactly. And that this is going to help their mood.

36:37And so not necessarily every workout, like you said, is going to be the most challenging. I want to talk about busting some myths when it comes to weight loss. So I want to talk about fat loss versus fitness and why the scale is such a poor measurement of progress for perimenopausal women. Yes, this is a great question. If you saw a picture of me from like eight years ago and now you'd be like, oh yeah, like you've definitely gained weight. I'm the exact same amount of weight, but because of that body recomposition, because I've gained more muscle and lost fats, that's what body recomposition is.

37:13Your body can change so significantly. So the scale shows one number and that number is just going to be how much you weigh. Like that is the only thing that you see. It doesn't go into account like your bone mass or your muscle mass or your fat tissue. Like it doesn't show any of that. So I always tell anyone that comes in as a client with broads to do a DEXA scan beforehand. That is so helpful. It's so necessary to see. There are some really great home body scans. I don't know if you've heard of Hume. They are pretty accurate as well, but having a full body scan of your body is so helpful to see that full data so that when you check again, it's not just one number on that scale.

37:55You have so much more that goes into it. Yeah. And I would say be careful of the body composition. It's software that you can get at home, some of the scales. So my husband did this like horrible thing. Men, you should never do this. He bought me a scale. He bought me a scale. I think it was for my birthday. And I was like, this is like not, this is not the move, but he's like, you're so data driven. You love having all this data. And this does a body composition analysis and it gives you like all this feedback and it like made a big promise for high tech. I got on it and it was like, oh yeah, your BMI is like 30 something.

38:31You're like 31 % fat. It was horrible, horrible data. It told me I was obese. And I was like, what? And fortunately, my premier care doctor, she has an actual body composition analysis machine hooking me up to the electrodes. I go in, I check it out. She's like, everything's perfect. It looks normal. You're totally fine. But I was like, oh my God, if I didn't know better, if I didn't know what I know, like this little scammy scale would have like crushed me, like crushed my mental health. I totally agree with that. And I would say like, if you have the accessibility to go get a DEXA scan, I would highly recommend it.

39:13There was one time I did a DEXA scan. I did an in-body. I did calipers and I did this Hume body pod all in one day just to see the accuracy of just the body fat alone. Also, there's one that is water. So it's like a water tank. I did them all in the same day, within a few hours of each other just to see how accurate they were. And this Hume body scan was actually like 1 % off. Wow. And so for accuracy-wise, I do promote them because I feel like they're a reputable and accurate scale. However, there is nothing better than a DEXA scan out there in my personal opinion. So many women are taught that cardio is the gold standard for weight loss.

39:56I want to hear from you. Why might cardio be sabotaging perimenopausal women's weight loss goals? Cardio, I will also preface this with like, if you like cardio, please do cardio. I want you to do it, but strength training is queen. Strength training is queen. Cardio, it doesn't allow, well, there's a couple of pieces to this. When we are strength training, we're burning more calories at rest. When you are doing cardio, we are burning the calories during that cardio session and then not after that. And so just that alone shows you that strength training is more powerful than cardio in fat loss.

40:35Cardio, it tends to, especially as you get into perimenopause, your cortisol levels will go higher. If you're into Orange Theory or some sort of Barry's Boot Camp or some sort of HIIT training, the stress levels may be higher. And when you're going into perimenopause, your hormones are already fluctuating so much and the stress levels are already so high. So putting more stress on the body is doing more harm than good, right? Because when you have more stress or sleep, appetite, all of those things. And then that also plays into like cardiovascular health is great, but when we're looking at that body recomposition and fat loss, we need to have more muscle on our body because really that muscle mass plays the biggest role when it comes to losing fat overall, just because of that, again, like having that body burning more calories at rest.

41:24I think this is a big reason why women who start to switch away from primarily doing cardio and cardio killing themselves kind of routines and go into walking, start to see weight loss because perimenopause is very unique. So the onset of perimenopause is usually progesterone decline. So what we see is that the corpus luteum, the temporary endocrine structure in the ovary doesn't make enough progesterone. We start to have sleep problems. We start to have more PMS. Then over time, we get cycles where we don't ovulate predictably. Now we're definitely not having progesterone and progesterone is such an ally in helping us manage stress.

42:02And so then we start to see cortisol goes up. cortisol goes up, the body says, we're under stress. We're not going to make progesterone, make more cortisol. And in that mechanism of being under more stress, sometimes the body also says, we need to hold on to calories because we are under threat. And we don't know why, because your body's like, I don't know why your boss is not a tiger, like not an actual threat, but yet perceiving it as a threat. And so I think that having that component of what you were talking about of things that help reduce your stress. Walking can sometimes be that. You have said not every workout needs to wreck you.

42:43Women who are trying to lose weight find that statement counterintuitive. Explain it to us. Why do you feel like they think it's counterintuitive? So there's a saying that like sweat is fat crying, right? And so women will hear things like that and think, like, if I can't walk the next day, if I am like completely out of breath, I feel like I'm going to have to crawl out of the gym. Like, that must have been what it takes to lose weight. Those are all statements that we have heard. They are not reality. I mean, we all grew up in the 2000s where it was no pain, no gain, never miss a Monday, sweat is fat crying, like do it for the pancakes.

43:26You must earn your food. But we all know now in 2025 that that is all bullshit. It's all just lies that were being fed to us for women to look a certain way. And that certain way was to be small and thin and fragile women. And I am here as my brand broads is for women to take up more space so that we can be more powerful and be more confident and be more proud of ourselves in that capacity. And so there is a shift happening, but we've been told for decades that this is the way it should be. We should be sore. We should feel exhausted, but that is not the case. And it is going to take so much time, so much reps up here in between the ears of you believing that that is true.

44:10But once you make the switch, give it just a few months and I swear you'll notice the most massive difference that you'll be like, wow, I can't believe I listened to that bullshit for so long. I said the bullshit. Let me, I did too. I'm not, yeah, I did too. Yeah. So I was in my twenties, group fitness instructor, early two thousands. Um, and I would say things like, like it was during the holidays, I'd be like, come on, 10 more pushups for that cookie. Like, let's like, you know, let's do the squats for like, you know, whatever the dessert was. And I remember this woman who was in her forties came up to me and she was like, why, why do we have to do these things just to be able to eat food?

44:48And I was like, I don't have a good answer for that. And I was like, she challenged me on that. And I was like, I'm just repeating things that I've heard, things that in my training, they said motivate women. And she's like, it doesn't motivate me. It makes me feel like garbage. And then I asked my class the next time, when I say stuff like that, does it make you feel like garbage? And they were like, yes, I feel shame. I feel guilt. And I was like, well, then like, why would you want to come back and see me if I'm do it. I'm going to stop doing that. But like, I will just say that it's always, even I will say as a doctor, it was always my patients in perimenopause and beyond who have taught me the most.

45:27If you just listen to them, and this isn't some just like wise women stuff. This is women who no longer have the hormonal allies for the mouth filter and for the executive function to stop them from just saying what they've always felt. And I appreciate that. Absolutely. And I mean, like I used to say it too, because it was decades of us telling that this was the way to do it. And now we're finally making this transition. And unfortunately, there's a lot of women in their 40s and 50s that have heard it for so long that they can't believe what we're saying is true now. And so that is my purpose and passion on why I do what I do is because I want women to see how much that they are truly capable of.

46:07Because all we were told was that we weren't capable and that we should be smaller and And we should be weak and fragile and be smaller. But as soon as you put on some muscle mass and feel that confidence, you're going to leave your ex-boyfriend. You're going to get a promotion. The confidence just pushes you through the roof. But you have to just try and lean into that change before it happens. Yeah. I was a kid in the 90s. And when Kate Moss, that's her natural body type. We love her for it. But her body type was put in front of us. And it was literally called like heroin chic. Like, so somebody who's doing drugs to the point that they're malnourished and emaciated is an entire like aesthetic that we were supposed to be achieving.

46:52And that's what we were told. So those of us who are in perimenopause now, that was the age when we were so influential in the things that we were told. Why do you think it is society tells women that they should be smaller, they should take up less space? Well, we could be here all day. Let's go. I mean, why? Because women have always been the less superior, you know, gender. That's just always how it's been. And now that - Not by fact, by society standards. By society standards. Absolutely. And I mean, like, I think that we have all seen, especially if you are in the U.S., that like, women are not treated the same.

47:32We should be on this lower pedestal and we, that's just how we've been forever. And so if we've always heard those words, why would we believe anything else is true? And, you know, as I've mentioned, there's, there's, there's so much change happening, but I still feel like we're a couple steps behind. And so it's like this constant, like, yes, we're, we're, we're up there. And then we get like shifted back again. So it's, we're constantly trying to, to change the narrative and become these badass strong women, but it takes talking about it like this. It takes, you know, women in perimenopause and menopause to hear these facts and see these really strong women take up space to know that that is something they can be capable of.

48:18But we can't do that without talking about it and without sharing these experiences. You know, it occurred to me just a few weeks ago, another reason that we have received this message is because that it's easier to physically control us. And I watched this video of this police officer trying to take a woman out of her car. She just kept asking him, why am I being pulled over? Am I being detained? Like things that were completely within her rights to do. And he got upset because he doesn't have good emotional regulation, I assume. And he tried to physically remove her from the car, but she had masks.

48:55he couldn't do it and she was videoing it and she started giggling because he was struggling and sweating and to the point he had to call for backup to try to get her out of the car and I was like hell yeah wow oh my gosh if we are strong we cannot be physically controlled like there has been a narrative to control us on so many levels and I've always thought like take up less space because like we want women to be quiet we want them to be submissive we don't want them to you you know, it's, we're always too much. Right. But there's also this physical aspect of it as well of like, if you have mass, you are much harder to physically control.

49:33And I don't think that, I think it's kind of amazing that it took me like 40 plus years to like have that epiphany of like, wait a minute. Like, it's also about like watching him manhandle her in that way. And he couldn't overcome her because this woman had mass. And I was like, I need to lift heavier. I need to get even stronger. Absolutely. I mean, think, try and give me one reason why it wouldn't be good for women to be strong. No, there's not one. Why it wouldn't be great for women to have muscle? Why? I mean, and there's this, always this word of bulky and masculine and looking a certain way.

50:12And it's like, why wouldn't I want to be strong and bulky so that I can stand up for myself? Yeah, well, exactly what you're saying right there. Why is it so threatening to men on the internet when a woman is strong? Do we see like the cute, you know, Pilates fanatics are not like, they're not putting on a lot of muscle mass, right? So we see like the cute Pilates girl and she's just got men fawning over her in the comments. Not always. I don't want to like, I know you get hate too, but I see without failure, if a woman shows off her bicep, her back muscles, like she's doing squats and she's got defined thighs.

50:52There is just a line of men waiting to tear her down in the comments. And I'm like, why is this so threatening to you? Is it because you're stuck on the couch or is it something else? I can tell you with 13 years of being on Instagram, I've had my fair share of you're a man, you're a dude. Stop taking you're trans, you're on steroids. Stop taking all this stuff and masking it when it's like, what? Why? Why does this hurt your feelings so much? And it's just these insecure, small, fragile, weak men, which as we know, women are allowed to be weak, but men are not allowed to be weak. So they hide behind their screens and say this stuff.

51:30And what does it really do for them or for us? I mean, of course, it's tearing other women down and it feels hurtful to get those messages. I'm not saying that it doesn't, but I know now in my 36 years of life that like that means nothing to me and that they're probably just intimidated by a strong woman. Yeah. And also all that energy they could be spending in other ways, but here they are on the internet. So we were talking about like, don't use food, your workout as earning your food and this entire mindset. How do women move past that mindset? Because you were saying that we can tell women, but they're not believing what we say.

52:11How do we get to that point? And what would you say to women who are like, no, I have to earn my food with my workouts? It's the same as putting the reps in the gym. We've got to put their reps in our food and nutrition journey as well. You know, if we were always told to eat a certain amount of calories or to eat less and move more, that's what we have, what that is what we know to believe is true. There's two things I would say to this. First is having the education and knowledge. I'm not someone that, I'm not a nutritionist, but I'm also not someone that counts calories or macros. There's a couple of things I do look at, like fiber and protein, but with my clients, we don't track those numbers.

52:47However, having the education and knowledge of what you're actually consuming is really powerful. Just like having the data on a DEXA scan, having the numbers and knowing your body and what works best for you is really valuable. And so even if it's just educating yourself on how much protein is in the food that you're eating throughout the day, maybe tracking a few days. I always like to say track a few days during the week and a few days on the weekend, just so you know kind of where you're at on what you're consuming and how it fuels your body. So I like to take inventory on the intuitive eating and mindful scale.

53:18Does this food actually fuel your workouts? Do you feel like you're getting enough sleep? Do you have the energy you need to go throughout your day? That way we have the data of what you consumed to actually manage that and trial and error some other things. But as far as changing the framing of like, you have to earn this, it's like having that actual data will help you understand what you need to actually fuel those workouts that you're doing. You've called motivation bullshit and said that discipline is what shows up on messy days. How can that mindset be a game changer for women whose energy and hormones are unpredictable?

53:58Motivation is bullshit. Do you believe that's true? I mean, I think that it depends, right? And what I will say about motivation in your midlife years is that as estrogen declines, dopamine follows. And so dopamine is our like, I want to do this because I want the reward. And then I get the reward and my brain tells me good job. I think in addition to that, we need to be talking about the estrogen framework of things because when your estrogen goes low, you have a harder time building muscle. You have more inflammation. You have more joint pain. It hurts when you work out and it hurts after you work out.

54:36So So I think in that scope of things, like, yeah, what is motivation? How is motivation going to get you to the gym? Because you don't have the brain chemistry because your hormones are leaving and your body doesn't feel great like it used to a couple decades before. I think this can go back to building that solid foundation in your 20s and 30s before you get into perimenopause. Because if you already have that solid foundation and lifestyle choices in these years, it's going to be habitual, which makes it a discipline, which makes it you don't need actual motivation to go. I'm at a point where I don't need motivation.

55:10I'm going to go and do the thing. And that's where those days come into play of, does this need to be the hardest workout ever? No. But am I in there just getting in the work to make me feel a little bit better afterwards? Absolutely. But when I think about why I say motivation is bullshit is because it's never always going to be there. It's not always going to be there. And so if we're always searching for something and looking for something that's not a tangible thing, we're never going to do the thing. And so, yes, there's intrinsic versus extrinsic, intrinsic within. You feel it. I have it right now.

55:40No matter what, I intrinsically know that I want to move my body. And then there's the extrinsic where if you're not actually in your fitness routine yet and you're starting maybe in your 40s or 50s and don't have that solid foundation, you can have these small rewards to get to it, which I think is great for a lot of people. However, those rewards may not ever still be enough. So that's where building those habits and creating that discipline makes way more of a difference. And that's where if we go back to building a routine, putting your workout in your calendar, not letting anyone jump over it, grabbing an accountability, working with a coach, like having something like that is really going to keep you going when that motivation doesn't show up.

56:21That working with a coach or having having a partner, it's called body doubling in the neurodivergent, mostly the ADHD world. It is something so fundamentally necessary in the perimenopause and beyond years, because most people are going to not find that motivation, they're going to find these, but if they have the accountability, that can be something that anchors them in. You know, you and I have both gone through some very serious losses lately, and it's been a lot of grief. I have continued to work out even when I've been told like, you can't work out, you need to rest your body. I suffered a late pregnancy loss.

57:06It's technically called an abortion, which is medical me wanting to say that. That's technically what it's called. But I still worked out because the feeling, if anyone has ever felt depression or extreme grief, being stuck inside your mind. It felt like, and it still have these moments where I'm behind the glass and I can see how good my life is. I can see what I should be grateful for, but I can't touch it and I can't feel it. And I'm stuck there and I'm feeling trapped in my own mind. And I would, and I just continued to go and work out. And I'm not even kidding. Like my husband would be like, are you okay checking in on me?

57:44Cause I'm just like bawling my eyes out while I'm working out. but I'm like, I know the research and I know that the only way I shatter that glass is if I keep moving my body, if I get outside and I do the things that are so hard. And so for me, in a really tough situation, that it was what got me to continue to move, to continue to exercise is that I was like, I hate feeling like this. I would do anything to escape this. For many women, again that's alcohol that that is something that numbs them out but the thing we know about that is i'm like that's just gonna push you deeper and deeper down and when you come out of it you're even deeper and then you need more alcohol to like get to that place of numbing and then you're deeper and deeper i'm curious from you in facing challenges hardship things that would you know that really incapacitates us how have you been able to keep going and continue working out I will say that I am a fitness professional.

58:46I've done this for most of my life. I grew up as an athlete and movement has saved me so many times in my life. I have been in very tough situations and fitness has truly saved my life. Being able to lift something off the ground and being proud of myself in the gym has pushed me through really big challenges. However, I am a professional, this is what I do for my life. And so I want to preface it with that because I know that for a lot of people, they don't have the foundation that I have. Getting into the gym and getting in my workout is the one part of my day that I feel super control, that I have control over.

59:24And the other parts, it's almost the time, like you were mentioning, I can be crying and I can be thinking about it, but my body is kind of taking over. I can push my body and my muscles into kind of a place where my mind doesn't think as much. And so it provides this kind of distraction, but also this feeling of accomplishment. And right now it's hard to feel accomplished in any other part of my day. And so movement has just been, and I say movement because it's not just in the gym with strength training is obviously a huge piece of my life, but it is maybe doing a yoga flow or doing some mobility, just laying down on the floor or going out for a walk.

1:00:04that has given me the capacity to keep going throughout the rest of my day when I feel like I don't have as much control. I think that's really helpful for women to hear. I'd also love to hear from you how women can stay motivated when they feel so fatigued or they're experiencing mood swings. I think it's really important to just check in with where you're at. For some people, maybe going to a gym might be overwhelming to them, the social aspect of it. I actually can't go to the gym right now. I can't be around a bunch of people I know. I have to work out in the gym or come to Mexico City and work out here.

1:00:39So I don't see anyone I know. But that can be hard for a lot of people. And so, you know, at least just getting outside, nature does wonders. And if you live in a place where you do have a trail or some water or something where this, it's this, I've read a lot of grief books recently where if you have the ability to see a wide landscape in front of you like a lake or mountain or something, it gives you more hope. It gives you more hope that you can keep showing up for yourself. And so, you know, with these mood swings of perimenopause or grief in general, getting outside is just, it's just so key.

1:01:17And that can then push you into moving through your body, whether it's yoga or stretching or just, you know, showing up for yourself in different ways. Yeah. And I think sometimes, so in the United States, it seems to be that everybody is so hinging their life around the weather. And yet we see in a lot of other cultures around the world, like the planet is iced over where they live and they're still getting outside. So for people listening, don't wait for sunshine. And I, I mean, I honestly find like being out in the rain, very cathartic, very healing. And, you know, to your point, like this weekend, we took the kids and we went out into the woods and we just let them run around on trails.

1:02:02We ran around, we found sticks and just did all kinds of stuff. And just being outside in nature has its own healing. We see Japanese culture has this, Nordic culture has this. They have words in their language for the therapy that nature offers you. And so I really just want to underscore what you're saying about getting outside and seeing the landscape, I think is such a beautiful tip as well. You've also said that rest itself is productive. Can you explain that? Yeah. I think because I grew up in the same time as you where we're like, work out six or seven days a week, doing two a days. And I never actually gave my body the ability to rest and recover.

1:02:49And I lost my cycle and my energy was low and I didn't sleep well. And I didn't really understand it until now I am putting my body through these rest days. I have these intentional rest days of two days a week where what does rest mean for a lot of people? It's chill. Can you go outside for a walk or get in some yoga or light movement? Sure. But if you're not giving your body that rest and recovery, the muscles don't have enough time to rebuild. And so, and what I mean by productive is that because we were told that you have to work out every day and you have to do so much, it's so much more productive to those people to see that you can get so much more out of it when you do give your body that recovery.

1:03:33And if you grew up and, or if you were in the same time as me where it was like, you felt like you had to, it does feel like something that you have to check off your list to do. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Can overworking out, as you said, like the double in a day, can that actually sabotage your fitness goals? Absolutely. Because it comes down to your stress levels, which we've talked about this whole time is that if our body is constantly in stress, it's going to shift so many other parts of our life with our lifestyle and sleep and nutrition, all that stuff. So it can actually absolutely do more harm than good.

1:04:12You say mobility isn't optional. Why is mobility so important for hormones and longevity for perimenopausal women? I think it's important to note that there is a difference between mobility, flexibility, and stability. Mobility is the ability to actively move freely within your joints. And so if we think of women in their later ages falling down or you're a lot more likely to break a hip after a certain age if you fall down. If we have a full range of motion within our hips, ankles, knees, shoulders, back, we're able to come out of those falls a lot easier. And so mobility training is a huge part of my coaching within Broads, my app, and with all my one-on-one coaching because we need to be able to move within our entire body.

1:05:01A lot of us just move forward and back. We need to move frontal, sagittal, transverse, plane. And so I utilize a lot of that in our mobility training. So that is sitting, I mean, it could be as simple as like sitting down on the floor and standing up. If you need to use your hands or if you need to lean or move around to get up, that should be the first thing you should do. Sit on the ground more, move through your hips, move in your ankles. Like, do you have that full range of motion in your ankles. If you don't have that now, how can you expect to put your foot down as you get down from a stair and not expect to roll your ankle?

1:05:36And it would take so much longer to get through that injury. So that's why it's a huge value add in the way I train and the way I work with clients. How often would you recommend people do mobility training? Every day. Yeah, I have it in every workout in broads. And I also just have mobility videos you can follow along with. But it can be something as simple as, like I said, you know, sitting on the ground. There's an exercise called a 90-90 or a shin box switch. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but you're basically sitting on the ground with your knees both at 90 degrees and you are just shifting your knees back and forth with keeping your feet on the ground.

1:06:12So it's a really great one to just do anytime. We can also be doing ankle circles right here as we're sitting down with our podcast, you know, sitting down and talking. You can do some wrist circles while you're on the call with someone. It can be small little things that you can add throughout the day so it doesn't have to be super overwhelming. So what adjustments should women make to their workouts in perimenopause if they want to experience energy and not burnout? Compound lifts are always huge. So typically in a workout, I would do a mobility dynamic warm-up and then we would get into a couple compound lifts to start.

1:06:49Compound lifts is multi-muscle, multi-joint. So stuff like squats, hinging, so a good morning or a deadlift. We would do a push movement. So anything pressing at your chest and pull movement. And then we'd do some sort of core. But if we want to really focus on that time that you may have allotted or energy or making sure that you're getting the most out of your training, compound lifts will absolutely be the best bang for your buck. How do we stop making the pant size, the litmus test for our self-worth or even our fitness level? Why is it part of your self-worth anyway? Why does that make you, why does the number on the pants or the scale or the shirt that you're wearing make you who you are?

1:07:36Why does that mean that you are worth something else? I mean, and we all know in women's clothing. I could be a size zero, a two, a four, a six, a 27, a 24, a large. Shirts too. Like the sizing that we wear does not matter anything to us. But because we've been told that smaller is better, when we see the pant size changing, we think of it as a bad thing. But what if you have more energy? What if your glutes have grown and your legs are stronger and And you can do things you never thought you could. And the size may still go up. How would you recommend that women reconnect with their joy of movement instead of just chasing results?

1:08:21Instead of chasing like, you know, losing the belly fat, losing the weight, being a certain size? How can they just connect with feeling joy in what they do? Movement is different for everybody. A really good friend of mine loves to dance. And that is her joyful movement. Now, and like I've been saying with my clients, if they come in and they like an orange theory or they like to cycle or swim or something, I'm not going to take that away from anybody. So finding whatever that movement is that brings you joy first is massive. Whether that's roller skating or karate or dancing, like there's so many ways to move your body that it doesn't have to be so strict in I must do this.

1:09:02If we find that joy first, strength training is only going to add to it. If you're a runner and you love to run, if you're strength training, it's going to make you a faster runner. It's going to make running more joyful and more entertaining. And it's going to push out your injury, mitigate injuries. And it's going to make you feel like you have more capability or capacity to do more. So whatever that thing that you're starting with that brings you joy, keep doing that. And then add in some of this resistance training and then the joy is going to go through the roof. Well, thank you so much for sitting down and taking the time to chat with us today.

1:09:38I've really appreciated this conversation. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.