I Am Me
Celebrating people and their passions because nobody can do it like you can.
I love that everyone has a story that is unique to them. Our journeys are all different, but we can still learn so much from one another. I am grateful that through my own journey as an actor I have had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people.
On my podcast you will get to hear their stories. This podcast is for the dreamers and the inspired. For the people who love people and are completely uninterested in living life by the status quo. Every person is unique to who they are. So look in the mirror and say it loud:
I AM ME!!!
I Am Me
Ep 18: I am Joelle and Alysa Reyes: Trading the Chaos For Consistency: Functional Health Coaching And Healing
You don’t need another rule to follow. You need a calmer plan that actually fits your life. We sit down with Joelle and Elisa of Beyond the Weights to unpack what sustainable health looks like for women who are juggling work, family, and the nonstop noise of “perfect” routines. Their philosophy is refreshingly simple: consistency over extremes, strength over punishment, and presence over hustle.
How to Connect with Joelle and Alysa:
https://www.instagram.com/beyondtheweightscoaching/
Joelle: https://www.instagram.com/joelleyreyes/
Alysa: https://www.instagram.com/alee_reyes24/
website: https://beyondtheweights.net/
Joelle Somatic Podcast Ep: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PR3bVc7JNl8em8xxvoJob?si=4b14b5e38d7e4157
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Hey everyone, welcome back to IM Me. I am your host, Liz Bachman, and today I got a pretty special duo with me, Joelle and Elisa Reyes. These two aren't just partners of business, they're also partners in life, and they run an amazing functional health company called Beyond the Weights together. They're all about helping women with their nutrition, fitness, and wellness and how to balance that into our busy lives. They've got a very holistic approach that I think you're all going to get so much out of. So without further ado, let's dive into today's episode. I want to talk to you both about starting off what inspired Beyond the Weights. Also, I want to ask y'all work more closely with women. Is that correct? More of your passion is women and helping women understand their bodies. Yes. Absolutely. So I do want to get your input on what inspired Beyond the Weights. Also, they're married to each other. I have to premise that because we had other people that were on that are like, we're business partners, but not partners. I'm like, they're business partners and they're partners. It's manager. And wife partners. So I just want to, yeah, let you open up the floor and just hear about kind of where Beyond the Weights came from and what inspired it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to bring it way back to when Elisa and I actually met because it's a little bit of a fun story. But I grew up in Connecticut. She grew up in Rhode Island and I went to Rhode Island College for my undergrad. And I had just gotten certified as a personal trainer. Was so excited to move to Rhode Island, like move out of my parents' house for the first time. And I got a job at a personal training studio in North Providence before I officially moved out there. And all the while I was on the dating app. And um at the time, OK Cupid was still like a pretty big thing. It was like the OK Cupid Tinder time. And I saw Elisa's cute little face with her little hat and Nike shirt. And it was like personal trainer in North Providence. And I just messaged her and I was like, hey, I'm like moving out there. And I just got a job as a personal trainer. I had no idea that the town was like two feet big. And she was like, Where did you get a job? Turned out I was hired where she had already been working for a while. That's crazy. Yeah, so crazy. So it's like we think just us meeting and our whole journey is like very much like a written in the stars thing because we would have met no matter what, but we we met on OKCupid. And that was where everything really started. And then um I was working at the gym. She was out as a private training studio while I was in school. And I noticed very quickly that Elisa had a very unique approach compared to other personal trainers in the gym, whereas a lot of their purpose with their clients was just to trash them, to bring them in for an hour, to push them so hard that they were walking out limping, could barely finish their workouts. And I noticed very quickly that Elisa took a totally different approach. It was from a place of much more intention. I also discovered that she knew a lot more. I mean, about everyone's, but especially about women's hormone, more holistic health. And a lot of that was because of her own health. Yeah. So then from there, I'll let Elisa jump in after. I tell like the top the high-level story, but um, yeah, so then from there, her and I started dating, and we just grew this passion together. Like so many of our conversations ended up revolving around just fitness and wellness and what that like next level looked like for us that was so much deeper and far beyond just trashing people in the gym and just burning calories, calories in, calories out, whatever that approach is. We just had so many conversations around it, and it was such a big thing that we connected on. I was in school, I was learning about deeper exercise physiology, kinesiology, and starting to take a different approach too with my clients. We saw this gap, especially when it came down to like just taking the approach of calories in, calories out, like just eat more, just eat less, and then all of your problems ever will be solved. We kept meeting more and more women that were struggling with fat loss resistance, struggling with hormonal issues, gut issues, and just chasing this never-ending like yo-yo cycle that was so hard to break out of because of how deeply ingrained in our culture it is. So we had talked for a long time about wanting to start our own thing. And we came up with the name Beyond the Weights one day when we were hiking in New Hampshire. And at the time, everyone saw us as these strength and conditioning girls, like these fitness, like weights, that's it. But we were already doing so much nutrition stuff with our clients on the side, like for free, just because we knew that they were never gonna get the full results that they absolutely were capable of with just hitting these crazy workouts in the gym. So um, we came up with the name Beyond the Weights because we wanted to go so far beyond the weights. And what that really started out as was full remote fitness and nutrition and lifestyle coaching that progressed to functional coaching, and now we're taking a much more holistic mind, body, soul approach. So that's that's the story.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot there. I want to ask about uh, yeah, because everything bleeds into everything, right? When you say mind, body, soul, everything is connected. But before we dive into that, because I do want to circle back to that because I think that's really important, but I do want to ask about hormones, fitness as we know it is set up for men, really. And correct me if I'm wrong, this is not my my field, but it's not set to work with women's hormones and we're on a 28-day cycle. So I want to ask you a little bit about just your input on how to like if a woman knows nothing about this stuff, what she can be doing to help like regulating her hormones or using her workouts and her nutrition to work for her hormones versus against them, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna let Elisa answer this one.
SPEAKER_02:So this can go, some people may poo-poo on this, but the biggest thing is I don't care about those people. I don't either. That's why I say I just preference it. But the biggest thing is is most people get so caught up in you know, cycling with their nutrition, with their cycle, or cycling their training, but no one's actually staying consistent enough to know what they need to do. Yeah, we are not small men and our body functions very differently, training at different adaptations. But the biggest piece of advice is to stay consistent with one thing. Yeah, so when you're in different parts of your cycle, you're gonna feel a lot stronger. You know, you're gonna have, you know, better training. Take advantage of that. But the days that you're not feeling as prime, it's like, okay, go in and still give your best, but you may not hit a PR that day. But that doesn't mean, hey, no, can't train because, you know, I'm right after ovulation and I'm not feeling strong. No, you're not broken. Go in, do the best that you can, stay consistent. And same thing with food. Don't start making a bunch of changes because that's what's on how you're gonna see on from cycle to cycle on what you'll start seeing over time of certain dips, but that's when you'll you'll start learning on how I might need a little bit more of that or a little bit more of this. But it really depends on the person. But the biggest piece is you have to start off with doing the basics, do them really well, and then listen to your body on how it's, you know, how it's responding, and then start making adjustments.
SPEAKER_00:And also one thing too, if we are going to differentiate more from men to women's hormones, the biggest thing too that we see a lot of that is a problem, especially with them and I think it's a problem in general, but especially with women, is the extreme approaches taken and pushed. And our hormones, our sex hormones, they are very, very sensitive. And what is happening with our hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, all of our sex hormones, even thyroid hormone, that's never the root of the issue, right? They are changes in those are symptoms of the habits that we're having, the workouts that we're doing, the food that we're eating or not eating. For example, a lot of women will go way too extreme with cutting out carbs, all carbs for way too long, or yo-yoing back and forth from no carbs at all to going completely to the other side. And you're never giving your body that stability and safety to regulate.
SPEAKER_01:Since you brought up food, I think it's a great like way to like segue into it. In researching for this, y'all talk about wanting to have a balanced approach with food and use food for your body. How does that look for you? Like you said, yo-yo dieting is such a thing, right, in our culture, and it's so extreme and it's all over the place. There's so much happening in the course of a month. So, food, how can we use use that to better benefit us, but have balance with it? Because the other thing is holidays are coming up and stuff like that. Like, what does that look like? Because I think a lot of us are so burnt out on the treadmill that we're on with food and fitness.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And one thing that most people don't realize because they like to take this approach of with this holiday coming, I want to make sure every single day that I'm not at this holiday party, I am being as strict as possible. I'm eating lower calories so that when I eat higher calorie, it doesn't affect it as much. However, what ends up happening is literally that yo-yo cycle, not only are one you depriving yourself and not nourishing yourself with like the baseline of maintenance of what you need, but then you're swinging the pendulum other way. So not only is that confusing to your body, your metabolism doesn't like that, that will eventually over time downregulate things. But the other thing too is that most people don't realize is acutely that basically starving yourself and then going extreme, going completely crazy with the hyperpalatable, quote unquote junk foods will trigger your hunger hormones to go through the roof acutely, like just the next day, and your satiation hormones to go way down, making it so much harder to get back on the quote unquote wagon, right? So it's not just this mental thing that so many people think. They think like, oh, it's just mental, it's just my mindset. I just need to be more disciplined. It's physiologically making it harder for you. So taking a more balanced approach where you're consistently eating, first of all, a little bit more, and second of all, integrating foods that you enjoy on a regular basis is gonna help mitigate that.
SPEAKER_01:So when you say integrating foods that you enjoy, I feel like there's people I see that have such a good balance with food. They are eating whole foods 80% of the time, but they're not shitting on themselves when they're eating like a slice of pizza or whatever. So when you say integrating foods that you enjoy, when we get into those junk foods, how would that look? Integrating that?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I this is a big thing that we work on with clients. Coming with the history of extreme yo-yo dieting myself and having, you know, eating disorders as well. I think it's so important to help people understand on how to bring those foods that they enjoy into a meal. Because then you're less likely to have the binge episodes or the, you know, falling off the wagon, as we say, or whatever they want to call it. It's a matter of, hey, what are the foods that really bring you that much joy? And let's talk about why they bring you joy, right? That way we better understand as coaches, so we can help you understand on the education behind them, how we can bring those in to become part of a meal. Maybe you like chocolate. Okay, let's have, you know, a piece of chocolate with that meal. If you want to go dark chocolate, it has antioxidants, it has fiber in it, that can be a great source of healthy fat with that meal. So we help bring more awareness around those sources so that people start rebuilding the trust within themselves and they can make a healthier decision when they are at those family events. And we come up, you know, we come up with a game plan like, hey, maybe it's more buffet style when you go to Thanksgiving. Okay, cool. Make a plate that you enjoy and sit down with that plate instead of grazing the entire time. Be present, have fun with family and get up and move after. You know, maybe it's a go for a walk with a family member, maybe it's doing a game. I know a lot of families do games. So instead of just sitting after, let's get up and move. Let's get the, you know, the digesting so your brain's not fixated just on like, hey, what's the next thing that I can grab?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that also makes me think about how people are so we eat so mindlessly, like, and we eat on the go all the time, right? In front of the TV, in the car, always on the go. It goes to that hustle do more culture, you know? Yeah, I even had to check in with myself. I'm like, when was the last time you like sat down and just ate your food? Not standing. When was the last time you sat down and just ate a fucking meal?
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So I think that's a really, really good point. Like, if you're going to like eat something you enjoy, but be intentional about it. Because how many times do we sit down and eat something that we enjoy? Air quotes. But we like we weren't even a part of the process. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, think about on a daily when people go through drive-throughs a lot, they'll get their drink of choice, they get food, and by the time they're at the red light, the drink is gone and the meal's half gone. And then they're like, oh, I'm a little bloated. And like your first stage of digestion is decide that state of mind that you're in, and then your mouth, all the saliva enzymes. So if you're not chewing your food, you're not like actually taking the time, you're less likely to actually enjoy it, but you're also more likely to have some digestion issues that come along with it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I also realize when I slow down and enjoy it, that stuff kind of tastes gross. You know what I mean? Like fast food and stuff. I'm like, this is this is kind of nasty. When you really chew like chew a Wendy's, sorry Wendy's, but chew a Wendy's burger 20 times, you'll be like, You get the little nerves in there. Yeah, you're like, you're like, this isn't hitting like I thought.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I would say the biggest thing for us too is when it comes around a lot of food noise and especially around holidays events, we don't want people to miss out on life. We want them to be able to go to these events, feel really confident, and not be the one showing up with a Tupperware container with your own meal. Bring the Tupperware container to bring the leftovers home, not the other way around. Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. I lived my life out of a Tupperware container for so long, eating the green beans with sweet potato and some boring ash chicken. And I'm like, damn, I'm missing. I had a moments of like my family connected over food. I'm Italian. Like we enjoyed meals down, loud talks, and food. So to remove that, I never realized how much it actually removed part of me until I started really repairing and slowing down and seeing for what it was. My brain doesn't get surrounded by so much food noise anymore.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, which is really lovely. I like that you brought that in because I was gonna bring up food a lot of times as a very community, like a very, very important part of community and culture and family. It's what people can bond over. They bond over meals, right? Yep. So I think that brings in like a mind, body, soul piece of what y'all are trying to bring in. And you also mentioned slowness slowing down. And I think that I want to bring that up around really all of it, food, also training, also just our approach to life, because I think we move so fast. So I just want to get y'all's insight on slowing down and intentional living.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And this is really where that holistic piece comes into play. Like I say peace, but it really is everything. And even if we're thinking about the holidays, what whatever it may be, where people are seeking joy or pleasure from food, but not actually experiencing it. One thing that's really, really important to us in general, but also for all of our clients, and we're deeply, deeply passionate about this, is people finding joy and pleasure throughout their daily lives. And in order to do that, you have to slow down, you have to be present. And that can be really, really hard for a lot of people at first because we are quite literally on a nervous system level addicted to chaos. And we're in this state of constant stress where we're so heightened that when we slow down, it feels scary. Our body is like, whoa, this is not safe. I don't like it. I'm going to find something else to distract myself. And then you get caught in this cycle of, oh, I'm so distracted, I'm so numbed out that in order for me to freaking feel something, I need to reach for the easiest, quickest dopamine hit. Scrolling social media, grabbing fast food, going out and getting an alcoholic beverage, like whatever it may be. So that's why we emphasize this really in every aspect of life. And then, of course, like we can get down to every little thing with like, okay, training, of course, slowing down, being intentional, that's going to help you have more mind-body connection. It's going to help you prevent injury. It's gonna help you simply get better results. And then just how how much like using training in nutrition as pieces of your life to learn how to slow down, to be mindful, to be present and connected in that moment can trickle into other aspects of life.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. It's so interesting that I saw I did an episode before this, like a solo episode, and I was talking about slowness. And I literally talked about how we are so wired that when we slow down, we have anxiety attacks. You know, like people have panic attacks because that used to be me. Yeah. In this, I mean, yeah, in the silence, it's like crazy. I want to talk a little bit about cortisol because we talked about like that constant go, go, go and that speed. I want to talk about cortisol levels and how we're seeing that affect women in particular, because that's typically who y'all work with. And what are practical ways to try and like balance that? Because I know we're coffee chuggers, non-stop coffee. I'm a coffee drinker. I'm not, I see your post, Joel. I I love my coffee. We are coffee sniffing.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, absolutely. Do you want to talk about this, Dave?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'll go a couple different ways. I mean, so many people get caught up with the cortisol part of it. And but the thing is when you're especially in the morning, what's gonna cause you more stress? Having that cup of coffee or skipping it now, you're stressed out because now you're tired. The biggest thing with cortisol is making sure you're paying attention to your sleep. Your circadian rhythm is so important for overall cortisol. Many people get caught up because they see the blood marker for the morning cortisol. You have cortisol all throughout the day, it kind of should ebb and flow like a little bit of a wave. It shouldn't be flat, it shouldn't just be down. But most people get caught up because they just focused on that morning cortisol. You need to really, if you're if you're having more of an extreme, like there's other testings to do to see on how your cortisol is throughout the day. But looking at it as an overarching, the biggest thing I always talk to client about, let's talk about your sleep first because that's gonna set you up. If you're struggling with sleep, let's work on fixing that first, and then we'll we'll worry about the other, like if you have peaks and valleys throughout the day. Because most of the time when people have a dip in the afternoon, oh now we need to talk about what your nutrition looks like. Are you reaching for another caffeinated beverage before you're reaching for your lunch? So we got to see on why we're having the dips before we get caught up in just the numbers because or you know, the idea of cottonology, because then people's stress go up even more because they think they need to do something extreme to balance things out. Where let's work on sleep, let's work on your daily habits, let's work on what your nutrition looks like during the day, let's do something that brings you joy. And if you don't know, we're gonna start working on a list of things that bring you joy so that when you're in those moments, you can go to that list. I just had a conversation with a client around this because a day's off of work, you don't know what to do. You're like all over the place. Okay, now you can just go to that list, pick something. If it doesn't work, choose something else off that list. Keep doing something until. So it's it's a matter of like you got to give a little trial and error. But I would say that's one of the biggest things with getting a better understanding around cortisol. And you know, there is some other extremes where people do have, you know, severe adrenal issues going on. But again, no matter what it is, you have to focus on lifestyle factors and not just taking supplements. There is stuff to take to help support it, but if you're not doing the basics with your daily lifestyle, you're kind of shortchanging yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. I like too that you made the point about if you take the coffee out, because with the good, bad, right? Or the right, wrong. There's so much noise around food and fitness. It's like, well, fuck, now like I need to take my coffee out and then I need to cut this out. You know, it just it's so much shit, man. Like, if I enjoy my coffee in the morning and like that's like a pleasurable, and especially if you're like, I'm intentional with that cup of coffee, yeah. Especially in the winter, right? You sit in there and you're like, it's so nice and warm, right?
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna tell you, like, I've had people and I've talked to them. I'm like, hey, if that's the thing that brings you the most amount of joy in the day, I am not one to remove that. How about we support it and make sure you eat breakfast at least after you have it? There you go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I like that though, because I feel like we get so, yeah, right and wrong.
SPEAKER_02:And then what it works for what, a week or two before you start like losing your mind? Like, who okay, you have to you have to meet someone where they are and not I always say stop removing things, let's add things into your life that's gonna bring you more nutritional value versus removing things first.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. I also want to bring up sleep really quick because you brought it up. What would be if people are having a tough time with sleep, what would be like markers that they would be looking for? Obviously, if you're doom scrolling and not going to bed till two in the morning, like that's okay. But like if they're really trying to sleep well, but they're like, I'm just not having good sleep, what would be simple things that they could be looking for or maybe trying to change to help have better sleep?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I'll start off with this, Joel, and then you can definitely jump in. Um, I would say, how are they measuring, first of all? Are they using some type of wearable that they're going off of? Are they waking up sluggish in the morning? Are they waking up frequently throughout the night? Because all of those dictate certain things that we should bring in to help adjust. If that's there's a difference between struggling to fall asleep versus struggling to stay asleep and different protocols that we bring in to help support those. But starting off with a good like nighttime routine, it doesn't need to be a 90-minute, you got your face mask on and you're like red lighting it out. But I mean, those can be part of it. But you want to make sure that the room is at a cooler temperature, you want to make sure that you have like blackout lines that I I recommend for my clients and draw the like blue blockers if you are watching TV at night, just to eliminate any type of you know artificial lighting at night, especially because most people are stuck behind a screen 90% of their day. So let's do something at night to help support that. Dim down the lights. You don't need to have your fluorescent lights on at night. So I would say those are some of the big things that we work on with our priming, yeah, priming your body for sleep.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:I like that you said it doesn't have to be a 90-minute routine because I'm like, I fucking can't with the morning routines and the nighttime routines. Who's gonna do an hour fucking routine every night? And if you do and that works for you, great.
SPEAKER_02:Shout out like, yeah, I mean like it's one of my biggest things is I love just like a shower at night before going to bed. It calms me, even though my brain's still going, it still calms my system. But we watch TV at night. Let's be realistic. We're not ones that are in a corner. No, we do watch some TV. Yeah, we we just put our blue blockers on. We cut off the TV time instead of staying up until 10. Like, hey, we're TV's usually done by eight. We're usually sleeping by like 9:30.
SPEAKER_00:Watching screens of like a show that I enjoy is not going to negatively affect my sleep nearly as much as scrolling on social media and seeing something that's activating. Getting a stressed out text from a client, watching like a scary movie, all of those things will negatively impact my sleep because it activates my nervous system and then I'm all jarred up. Whereas if I'm chilling watching a show that I enjoy with my blue buckers on, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a nice eight hours after and I'm gonna fall asleep in eight minutes.
SPEAKER_01:That's a really, really good point because social media, I try to, I mean, that's a whole conversation. But the activating, like getting activated on social media, that I've gotten where I really try to just not be watching it and definitely not first thing in the morning and last thing at night because you can't control what you're gonna see next if you're scrolling. Unpredictable. Yeah, I was watching a girl was talking about that. I'll get off on a tandem on that, but that's makes so much sense because I'm fine, I'm peaceful, I'm going to sleep, and then all of a sudden something comes up and I'm fucking pissed or I'm anxious or like, yeah, the world's burning down or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I had that moment the other day. I didn't put my phone on per like do not disturb mode. And when I woke up in the morning, I went to I swipe my phone usually just to see what time it is, and I saw text messages from clients and it came up and I seen the words, and this is why I put my phone on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And this is like 5 30 in the morning. So I'm like, oh no. But it automatically stimulates you. You even though you don't want to think about it, you see it. So put the phone on do not disturb, unless you got like major health issues going on, you know, like yeah, especially as coaches.
SPEAKER_01:No, I like this, you know. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, coaches, I do that too. Cause like if you run any type of business on your own and people have your personal number, I love you, but I don't need to see you at 5 30 in the morning. It can wait or not an emergency room. Nope. Yeah, exactly. We're not doctors. Weight training, weight training for women. I want to talk about that. We hear it that women should be weight training. And I want to talk about one, why it's so important. And two, if people, or maybe y'all are like, fuck Liz, we don't even care about no, but like you'll wait, y'all teach people how to like weight trade. So, like, I would think that y'all would think it's important. But two, if people like really enjoy other forms of movement, they're like diehard Pilates people or die hard yogis or in no shade or teeth, that's awesome. How would you encourage them to maybe implement some weight training into their life?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So resistance training, weight training, progressive strength training is absolutely essential for health and longevity. The key is that it has to be progressive. So you need to be consistently adding more demand onto your tissue. And when I say tissue, I mean muscle, tendons, and bones. Um, and really the real reasons are I mean, there's a ton of very, very clear evidence how much it helps so many different health outcomes. But for women in particular, and I'm gonna speak uh to our ideal client, like the women over 30, the biggest thing that you cannot see and you cannot feel until you're 65 years old and you fall and break a bone is your bone density. On average, women between 28 to 35, we can no longer make any bone density and it will steadily decline year after year. And you cannot, you cannot maintain that without consistently and progressively adding load to your bones. So, with that, we also mean like vertical load top down, like unfortunately, Pilates, yoga, water, aerobics, whatever else, pole dancing. I love pole dancing, like all of these things that are yes, like stressing some of your muscles, putting you in hard positions, they're getting your heart rate up, they're hard. Like they're pilots, no joke. They're really hard, but they're not stressing your bones the way that you need to maintain bone density. So that is the number number one, most important reason that most people don't realize or care enough about because it's not something that you can see. But I promise, I promise, when you're 65 years old and you slip and fall on the ice and you don't break a bone, you'll be so happy that you are not like your friend down the road who's already in like a nursing home, right? And then the other thing too, especially with women as we age, is really from a metabolic and hormonal lens, having more muscle on your body is like a powerhouse for your metabolism when your hormones are going to inevitably like start shifting. Menopause, we all know things start changing. And when that happens, it's very likely your basal metabolic rate is going to start to downregulate your muscle. Our bodies require more energy to maintain themselves with more muscle. Muscle is like a calorie-burning powerhouse. So those are the two like biggest reasons why women need to be strength training again, progressively. And it really does not have to be this like crazy bodybuilding split. What we know for sure, and this is not just for women, this is for everybody to help prevent health disparities. You need to be strength training progressively two days a week, hitting every major muscle group for at least two sets of time. That is the basic bare minimum. And progressive overload, there's a bunch of different ways to achieve it. But the easiest, most understandable way is every time it feels like that's starting to get easier, more weight.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And if you can't add weight, slow down the movement. Wait, say that again. I said, and if you can't, if you can't add weight, because some people, you know, wherever they are front line, slow down the tempo of the movement that you are doing. Okay. So, like example, if you're doing a squat, do it slower.
SPEAKER_01:Don't just like drop down, pop up.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And that's why there's different adaptations. So you're like Joel said, whether it's the weight, whether it's the tempo, maybe you have a pause. There's so many different ways of doing it. And so when the weight gets maybe too heavy for someone, there's different ways of still achieving that adaptation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, two days a week minimum. Just like giving some someone that point. And then kind of on the flip side of that, I want to ask about. What is too much? Because some people are the I have to work out seven days a week. And even if it's not weight training, I'm just talking about really I'm asking about rest. And I'm not saying not having movement in your day-to-day life. Because I think that's what other some people do that also, right? Like, well, I'm off today, so I'm gonna be on the couch all day. And it's like, babes, we need a little. I don't know how people do that. No, honestly. The fit couch potato. Yeah. But what is active rest look like? How often should we be resting? And how do we know, I guess, not when, when our body really is, you need some freaking rest, dude. Like you need to sit down.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so this looks different for everyone. I would argue that if you have a hard time with resting, and I I'm not including like walking, going for a hike, if you want to go kayak something, but if you have a mindset of no days off, that is a problem. That is a problem. That is a mindset problem, potentially a mental health problem that needs to be tackled, could be a little bit disordered. But the average person, and I'm thinking of the person who works a nine to five, is working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, has kids, is stressed all of the time. Most of them do not have the recoverability to be working out five plus days a week. Like five day splits for most people are overkill, are too much, are not going to be recoverable, let alone the amount of food that you likely need to eat in order to recover. It's just not attainable for most people. The average person really should be training if you if you want to see really good progress, especially if you do care about body composition and really progressing in strength, not just the bare minimum basic health stuff we were just talking about. Should be training three days a week, four days a week, if it's not something that's gonna add a ton of stress to you. And then should be doing cardio. At least it's gonna.
SPEAKER_02:So I struggle with getting my cardio. I say two to three days of strength training, most likely full body sessions, 60 minutes of cardio weekly. Most people do not do cardio. Our most important muscle in our body is our heart. So you need to lean into that. Build a good cardiovascular base. It doesn't have to be on a machine. Maybe you want to go for a bike ride, maybe you find something that you enjoy. This is a great time to doom scroll. Get on a piece of cardio equipment, doom scroll for the hour, whatever it is. Do that over the course of the week. But I I highly suggest, and we do with our clients, get outside in nature. Get outside, reconnect, hear the because most that that forces you to slow down. Go for walks outside more. So we say two to three days of strength training a week, bare minimum there. We say 60 minutes of cardio a week, and then daily steps. If you're not able to get the daily steps, it needs to be very is important.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Then so 60 minutes of cardio. I do what cardio? What do we mean by cardio? Are we talking like because some people be like 60 minutes of walking, which maybe that is, or or maybe that's all they can do, right? I what when you say 60 minutes of cardio a week, what does that kind of look like?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so in different forms. I'll start with where we start with most of our clients. Most of our clients, when they come to us, they're not getting enough steps and getting outside in nature first. So we're gonna start them with two days of training and we're gonna tell them they have a step goal. We're gonna work on that step goal before we even add in additional cardio because we just want to get them up moving. We want to get them in a place that's not extra stress. Once you're able to do that, we start talking about now, okay, now we're gonna bring in some cardio. Low intensity, steady state cardio. The, you know, you'll hear everywhere about the zone two cardio. It's important. It really is building that base. And it's an intensity of where it's like a six out of ten. You shouldn't, you should be able to have a conversation while you're doing it. If you're not able to have the conversation, slow yourself down, maybe pushing a little bit too hard in the beginning. And some people that could be rewalking outside. And that's how yeah the conditioning is. Like so many people are out of shape walking up the flight of a stairs and they're tanked by the time they get to the top. That's a red flag. That's your body screaming, hey, we need to make some adjustments. So that intensity is a little bit different for everyone. But what I use as a gauge is you should be able to hold a conversation with someone as you're doing that zone two cardio.
SPEAKER_01:And when you say zone two cardio, we explain what that means. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Do you want to do you want to take off on this one, Joel? You want me to?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, you please correct me if I'm wrong, but it is getting your heart rate up to about 60 to 70 percent heart rate max. Am I correct, Lisa? Hey, go me. I am not the cardio queen. She has to remind me often to do cardio for at least 20 active minutes at a time, ideally 30 or more. But that extended period of time is really, really what you need to make the adaptations.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's helpful.
SPEAKER_00:And that looks different for different ages, you know, like your heart rate max decreases as you age. So the actual number depends on the person, but 60 to 70 percent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think too, some people just immediately cardio and they cardio running. Like that's it. That's the only form of cardio that exists. And go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:No, and I say, like, I have so we do have clients that are a little bit older too. We have, but how about if you have an injury and you still need to get cardio in in, but your running mechanics are trash? Okay, so now you're putting more inflammation on your body. You're putting your, and I'm not saying running's bad at all, but everything's dependent on the person. So maybe all you can do right now is bike. Maybe you like to swim. So you need to lean into something that you will do consistently and without causing extra pain, you're only as good as what you can recover from. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I just wanted to make that point because I feel like we used to be so cardio heavy, right? Everything was like just do cardio, no weight training. And then we started hearing like the importance of weight training. So then it was like weight trained, like fuck cardio. And it's no, no, it's a it's a healthy balance of both. It's a healthy balance of both, right? Exactly. Yeah, I love boxing for cardio. Running always fucks up my knees. Boxing's great. Daily movement. Well, I know steps is oh my god, we could talk, we could spend like an hour, I feel like, talking all the walking and like yeah, how much I love walking. I've like just become obsessed with it at 30. But I think taking out actual like workouts uh out of the conversation and just helping people get moving and their day-to-day, what are some tips and tricks for that?
SPEAKER_02:I say find something you really enjoy and do more of it. I say start there, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I also said, go ahead. He okay, I also say whatever you can front load some movement into your day because it again, with our modern society, our lifestyles, it is very, very easy to get to the end of the day and just feel so exhausted. Like make it easier for yourself and do a little bit more when you have that energy. And then you'll have more energy to pull from throughout the day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think that's a great point. Like, I think too, some people think in the morning they got to get up and I'm not a morning workout person, not my intense workout. Never have been. I hate it, it's not my vibe. But like walking in the morning, stretching in the morning, that sets me up complet for a completely different day. And I think I had a shift a couple years ago where I'm like, okay, we don't have to get up and go for a run. You know, we can get up and just go walk for 20 minutes or 30 minutes, just so we're not immediately hopping in the car, commuting to work, and then sitting in front of our computer at a desk all day. I have another one off of that.
SPEAKER_02:Going back to that cortisol question you asked a while too, is most people stress about cortisol, right? Well, the best thing to do to help set your circadian rhythm is when you wake up in the morning, that sunlight will help set your circadian rhythm. Get outside, get the sunlight in your eyes, your ears, very important. Don't make me go too much woo on you, but very important to get that into your system.
SPEAKER_00:Just the cortisol cycle, right? Like the the difference between like going out and doing an intense workout in the morning or waking up and just moving and getting outside, getting some gentler movement is going to give that like slow little spike that we need in the morning. And again, like cortisol is not bad. Cortisol is misunderstood because the internet we want it in the morning. But if we're going out and just like waking up, rolling out of bed, whether it's going to work and hitting stress mode with emails or going out and doing an intense run, that's gonna set you up for more of an extreme spike and then a more extreme drop, which is gonna make you want that afternoon coffee. Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That it is true though. I think um people don't realize, I'm not knocking anyone if they get up and they go for a run. But for me, it it uh speed, right? Like we talked about how we want slowness and slowness brings everything down. And I I want to move through my day with as much ease as possible. But getting up and going into like a really hard workout where I feel like shit because going in speed, and it's already got me like feeling like, okay, I went and did my run or I went and did the workout. Now I gotta do this, and like already in that checklist mode versus just walking. Yeah, it's a completely different setup for my day. And I I'm a big believer of being outside. That's been huge. I mean, we hear it right over and over. Get in nature, be outside. It really is amazing for your mental health and your physical health. And it's so it's true.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna put my gross, it's so true. I put my sense in here too. You think about like ancestral days, and I'm gonna bring it back, is like we were outside and people are a lot healthier. People were connecting with other humans face to face, more contacts that way versus through a screen, never actually getting outside and feeling the like it's very, very different. So leaning into doing more of that type of movement, but again, it all depends on the person. In the morning, if they have to go to work, they have to go to work. Okay. So in the afternoon, when you get a lunch break, take your lunch break outside. If it's raining, at least get away from your desk. Do what you can, what's in your control. We're not saying you have to live a woo-woo lifestyle, but you need to figure out what works for you and ebb and flow. And every season might look different for you. But once you start learning the tools and what make you feel really good, figure out on how you can ebb and flow with the season that you're in to make you feel that, even when it's heavy.
SPEAKER_01:I'm glad that you made that point because I also, because of all the noise out there, I don't want anyone to ever think I'm telling them to do it the way I do it because what I do very much works for me. It's why I get frustrated when I see the YouTube's like the perfect morning routine or the perfect exercise or whatever. That that morning routine might not work for them at all. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that could that could work for two weeks for them, and they're like, now it's not working anymore. What do I do? Right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That tuning in. You are currently getting certified in somatics. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. Um okay. I just want to get a little insight into that and how that can tie into like just our health and wellness in general. And honestly, what it is, because I know some people don't even know what somatics is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So this is just another step deeper in that holistic model that we believe in so deeply. One thing that has always come up, right, in every education we've ever done in our continuing ed program for functional nutrition and metabolism specialization, everything we learn at the root, or at least part of the root of so many health issues is chronic stress and trauma. So I actually do have a whole podcast episode myself on what it is, and I could go deep in it. Okay. But I'm gonna give like a five-minute overview.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I'll also what I'll do is I'll tag that episode. Everyone, I'll tag the episode link in the description. Amazing. So, all right.
SPEAKER_00:So, somatics, basically the word somatics derives from the Greek word of the body, and they're essentially body-based practices to tune in, listen to your body, and release stress and trauma from your bodies. I got into it honestly from working with my own somatic sex therapist. And I didn't even, I didn't go to her for somatics. Like that was just part of the piece. And I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how much I needed this, like where my emotions and my stress was showing up in my body, how to tune into that, how to put language to it, how to really feel it. And throughout learning that and just leaning into that more, I was like, hey, I get this. I get what's happening. I feel very tuned in with my body. I'm realizing even more so than ever, how many people, especially women, are so disconnected and tuned out of our body's own cues. Our bodies literally communicate to us through feelings, through sensations. And we have learned since we were little kids to tune that out, right? Like being made to wait until a bathroom break, even though you had to pee in that moment, starting when we're little, drinking caffeine when we're tired instead of eating food to give us energy, with chronic dieters, learning to ignore our hunger cues. And then on the other side of the coin, especially with the obesity epidemic, learning to ignore our satiation cues, numbing out with social media, alcohol, drugs, all of these things that pull us so far away from our body is like literal inner wisdom. And we've been quite literally taught to ignore these little whispers of our body trying to sell us like, hey, something might be wrong. Hey, this doesn't feel good, hey, this doesn't feel safe. Hey, this does feel good. This feels amazing. I love this. Give me more of that. And we're in this place where we're just numb. Somatics, the base of it starts with learning how to actually tune in and reconnect with your body, and then using body-based practices to help release the symptoms of stress and trauma. And I'm still in the middle of my course. So some of the deeper connections to like chronic illness, especially autoimmune diseases, stuff like that, that really, really is a place where that will show up. But then, for example, if you're someone who knows how to, from a mindset lens, release something mentally, but you're still feeling it in your body, still feeling that stressy anxiety, somatics helps you release that part of it.
SPEAKER_01:That's really um, really beautiful. Like you cannot think your way through any type of trauma or intense emotions or, you know, especially ones that keep coming back up. You're never gonna be able to think your way through them. Yeah, I just I I've been like dabbling in it, and it's just it's so helpful to just like release all the shit that like you've just been carrying since you're a kid.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_02:You see the carryover too, like the more conversations that we have with women when I get on calls with them and listening to how they speak and maybe how they even get defensive around their own goals, you realize where the trauma is stored. We start unpacking that and helping them rebuild that connection with themselves to help release and you see on how many health issues come from stored trauma. Your nervous system is shot, and that is the main piece that is gonna start working with your thyroid, your hormones, your gut, all of this stuff. If you don't work on your nervous system and doing somatic work along with it, you're never, you're gonna, you know, 80%. I'm sure you'll do better. But if that extra percentage really comes from doing the deeper work and starting to release the stored trauma from whether it's inner child or whatever it may be. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that outside in approach is never gonna be as good as the inside out approach. I mean, I do think you need both of them, for sure. But you gotta do that inside stuff too. Like you can't, yeah, you can't avoid it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's why with our clients, and one of the reasons why we started the business too is after hearing so many people talk about things, you're listening to them and you're like, this isn't about training. This is about all the things that you've been telling yourself that you need to do when in reality, you just need to be consistent. You need to understand on how to fuel your body, you need to understand on how to move your body and also appreciate yourself along the way.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah. No, I I love that. Awesome. Okay, I do want to know just real quick, tell people where they can find you, if they want to work with you, plug your stuff, and then I'll of course put everything, I'll tag it in the description as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So you can find us on Instagram at BeyondTheWaights Coaching. I and Elisa both have personal Instagrams. You can find it there. Um, and then you can find our podcast. It's called the Beyond the Weights Podcast. It's only on Spotify right now, working on everything else. And then our website is beyond the weights.net. And that is where you can find a link to apply to work with us and book a free consultation call.
SPEAKER_01:I will also put all of that in the description.
SPEAKER_02:I personally want to send the invite to like if anyone has any questions, concerns, anything at all, our DMs are always open as well. We're, you know, we we will respond to them. We are very caring, we are very passionate about this. We're not just gonna ignore you, like any questions at all. We'll be happy to help.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. I can attest to that. I worked with Alisa one-on-one, and then she worked with my sister too. So they're both amazing. I never worked with Joelle, but I met Joelle, and Joel's married to Elisa. And I mean she has to be pretty amazing, she has to be great. Elisa's not gonna not gonna marry someone who's not no anyway. No, uh, thank you so much for being a part of the show. I really enjoyed talking to you guys today. Thank you, gals. I say I say guys, lady missing, whatever. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We like it all.