What type of exercise is best for you

Welcome back to how to twenty-something, today’s episode dives into my first passion, which is fitness, and the different types that exist out there so that by the end of the episode you’ll be able to choose the best tool based on the goals you have for yourself.. Or really any combination of tools

And along the way I’ll be sharing my transformative approach to exercise, what I have my clients do, what I personally do, and what you shouldn’t do if you want to lose fat

This is one juicy topic that I love talking about because it debunks everything you ever knew or thought about in regards to using exercise to help you get the body you want

And I know because I used to have the knowledge you currently possess, the one that the media does a really good, and by good I mean absolutely terrible job, exposing you to

I’m also going to talk about strength training versus cardio and how to even get started with regular movement in your life

And of course, if by the end of this episode you’re thinking man I need to start weightlifting but I don’t know how to begin, then you can still access my free how to weightlifting guide that’s linked in the show notes

Or you can schedule a call with me as workout programming is part of what you get when you work with me one on one

Now, let’s start with shifting your view of exercise… exercise is a tool it is not the end all be all fix to getting you healthy or sculpted or jacked or cut or defined, or insert whatever phrase you please

It aids in what you want.. It’s your nutrition that carries over the bulk of it, but today’s episode is about your exercise

Since exercise is important for you to be able to continue having a functioning body as you age and supports your health in so many different ways

Right now, being your twenties, you don’t really suffer the negative effects of not exercising but with each passing year you slowly start declining and then you’ll reach the point of a decrepit old person in your seventies who can’t get off the toilet on their own

I’m sure you want your body to support you in whatever it is you want to be able to do like travel or play with your future kids or have really good sex and then not to mention that you’ll look great doing all of those things

Exercise is a form of self-care, so if you are not regularly exercising you are not taking care of yourself, it’s that plain and simple

However, your relationship to exercise is also very important when it comes to its effectiveness as a tool

Because you can use it and abuse it which I briefly mentioned in the creating a healthy foundation episode and now I’m going elaborate

You’re going to want to get to a place where you can do the least amount of work to elicit the most amount of change

Where you don’t need to do cardio for hours on end or block out 2 hours of your day every day and hammer your body, which you shouldn’t be doing to begin with

This is where weightlifting becomes the most useful tool because eventually you get to a point where you only need 1/7th of the effort to keep the current work you’ve created

That, of course, is after years of consistency

The main reason why I really wanted to create this episode is because there are so many misconstrued views on exercise and I want to set the record straight and help you make an educated decision as to what is going to suit you the best based on what you’re after

I find that there are two main types of people: those who don’t exercise enough and those that exercise too much

I used to fall into the too much category and will even sometimes accidentally fall back into overtraining 

I used to abuse exercise BADLY, so if you’re like me and suffer with body dysmorphia, then you probably have the mindset that you need to burn off everything you eat that’s unhealthy or honestly anything you eat in general and that if you don’t workout you’re going to gain weight right away

I hope me saying that grabbed your attention because this is something the media portrays with the calories versus calories out bullshit

I kid you not, I would eat a cupcake and then go run a mile to essentially delete eating the cupcake, mind you I was in seventh grade when I was doing this and I was already in like the 1 percentile for height and weight.. Honestly, if I’m remembering correctly the doctor started making dots below the charts because I was so small for my height and weight

Meaning I could afford to eat that cupcake, but I’m telling you this story because that relationship only got more extreme as i got older and my fear of getting fat grew

I thought I was being healthy, when in reality I was abusing my body with excessive and obsessive exercise

I had an unhealthy relationship to working out

And when you’re young your body can handle that type of abuse

You’re a lot more resilient so you don’t suffer the adverse effects of overtraining

I’ll make an episode real soon about what overtraining looks like and what to do about it

But as I was saying, my relationship to my body and exercise only got worse especially as I entered college and then as I got more addicted to the results I was seeing once I started weightlifting

So at first I was a cardio junky, I would go for runs, be on the elliptical, jump to the stairmaster, run stadiums, I wanted to burn calories and work up a sweat solely to prevent myself from gaining the freshman 15

Because up until college I was consistently playing different sports that were naturally keeping me fit and active, then once you graduate you kind of have to figure it all out on your own

Not to mention that your body is changing, you’re eating worse, you’re drinking so much more, and you have zero routine because your schedule is a lot more free and free time creates a lot more chaos due to the lack of structure put in place

High school was easy in the fact that your schedule was made for you, you had to be at school for a certain time, then your coach told you when and where practice or games were and what you were doing during that time, then you come home and dinner is there waiting for you

You didn’t have to think about shit it was all laid out for you

Then you enter college and if you aren’t one of the athletes everything becomes a free for all

Then post-college brings you back to that similar high school schedule only now it’s on you to think about what you’re going to do after work and for all of your meals

Mom and dad are no longer there to guide you through it all.. Or essentially make these decisions for you

Actually as I’m creating this episode I was having this exact conversation with a potential client, so if you’re listening… you know who you are.. Know this was made prior to our conversation

Anyways, because of my relationship to exercise I never had an issue missing a workout, which is honestly an issue in and of itself and what was frustrating was I felt like I was still gaining a little belly even with my daily hour of intense cardio

It really wasn’t until after I broke my foot playing soccer, and had to start regaining strength in my leg through physical therapy, did I start to see the results I always wanted only instead of cardio it was through lifting weights

By this point I was graduating college, had no job lined up, and was planning on staying in my apartment until my lease was up at the end of July, I had so much time on my hands that I would walk 3 miles to the gym on the other side of campus, lift weights for an hour, and walk home

The whole ordeal would take about 5 hours and because I was young my body was able to handle all of that and I could easily ignore the side effects that I was doing too much

Once I got a job and began working, my activity levels were severely cut down but I started to include 20 minutes of hiit high intensity interval training to end of my lifts

Fast forward to the pandemic and I was right back to my 5 hour workout days

I looked great, but my skin was terrible, my nutrition was also terrible, and my relationship to my body was straight up abusive

But I was chasing skinny and that is a dangerous game of chase to play, which is hard because people will tell you how great you look only encouraging these behaviors even more

Because they don’t know everything you’re doing to get to that level and not to mention the part that it is entirely unsustainable

So while you may see results right at the beginning over time your body is going to rebel back and you’ll will start to experience adverse effects

This happens to so many people who start working out by taking classes or picking up running and instantly start losing weight so they think it’s working, when what’s really happening is you’re moving more and that initial increase will be received by your body as it works to adapt to what you’re telling it to do, which is burn calories and sweat

Or what happens if say you switch from soul cycle to f45 to pilates, is you’re introducing a new stimulus to your body so of course it’s going to respond until it adapts

Overtime, as your body adapts to what you’re telling it to do, your weight loss or results in general will start slowing down until you plateau and then honestly what I’ve seen happen is you start going backwards.. That is if you don’t have your nutrition in check as well

But what’s also happening is even though you are losing weight you’re not putting on good muscle or feeding that muscle, so you are slowing your metabolism down, if anything you’re losing muscle so the weight loss you see is not the weight loss you want

So while you look smaller, you’re also more flabby and I know you don’t want that look either

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do cardio or take group fitness classes because they do have their benefits… just not long term physique benefits

Here’s what cardio and group fitness classes are good for 

Cardio is good for heart health and endurance

The reason why I group cardio and group fitness classes together is because they are both forms of cardio.. I don’t care if you tell me “no but jess there are resistance days”

Because here’s the thing.. If you have no control over the rest period then you are not resistance training you are doing cardio with weights

Is cardio with weights better than just cardio when it comes to body recomposition? Yes

But lifting weights on your own, with rest periods between 1 and 5 minutes will always be superior to your fitness class that has a resistance day

Yes, I am an f45 trainer, it doesn’t mean I agree with using F45 as your primary source of fitness.. I work the for the community and honestly because it’s a pretty easy job from a trainer’s perspective

But it’s generalized and you’re not going to get the one on one attention you probably need for your unique body and needs – that goes for any group fitness class

It’s better than nothing and gives you direction with what to do for your workout but it’s not the best thing you can be doing for yourself if you have aesthetic goals

So if you are someone who just wants to work up a sweat, who wants to get their heart rate up, who runs races like 10k’s, half or full marathons, spartan races, and anything of the sort, if your job requires you to have good endurance, if you play a sport or enjoy playing sports, if you genuinely enjoy your source of cardio, or if you are looking to feel heart healthy then cardio is for you

However, if you have physique goals then i’m sorry to tell you this but cardio alone will not support that.. Cardio will give you the skinny fat appearance

This is because cardio sends a certain stress signal to your body that it needs to be able to move quickly

You see we have an outdated system in a modern day world.. Something I’ve mentioned more than once on this podcast and will continue to repeat… but what that means in regards to exercise is that your body doesn’t understand that you are running for your health

Simply because we evolved from a time where when we were running it was for life or death

So your body is sending the message to get rid of your muscle so you can become more efficient at getting away.. Or in other words surviving – so now you can run faster since muscle isn’t weighing you down

Your body doesn’t register that you decided to hop on a treadmill for 45 minutes and that no one is chasing you trying to murder you

The other thing that’s happening internally is your body’s natural adaptation process

Meaning your body will become really good at conserving the amount of calories burned so you can survive this stressful period of your life

Or in other words you could run the same one mile loop and at first you’ll burn a set amount of calories, then when you go do it again the next day it’s going to be a little less, the day after, a even a little lesser and so on and so forth

Because at the end of the day, your body and your brain want to keep you alive so it’s going to do everything in its power to do so

Regardless of what your watch is telling you.. Your watch isn’t accurate!!

So having cardio as your sole source of exercise whether that be cycling, running, group fitness, hiit, and anything of the sort is your ticket to flabby land and I know no one wants to be flabby

For my ladies who want to be sculpted and toned and for my men who want to be ripped, shredded, and cut… cardio will take that possibility away from you

Now maybe you’re thinking, but jess I know so and so and all they do is cardio and they look amazing, to which I will respond with your genetics, your habits, and your nutrition also play a role in your physique

It’s why there is an individual variance to everything it’s also why you should work with a trainer or a coach who can cater to your individual needs.. Group classes are generalized… kind of like how my group workshops and this podcast are generalized,  but working with me one on one is catered specifically to you, your life, and your needs and desires

I said at the beginning of this episode that exercise is a tool, so I want you to think of cardio as a heart health tool and resistance training, where you’re in control of the rest periods, is a metabolism boosting tool which I will get into right now

But I don’t want to totally deter you away form something if you enjoy it, so if you are someone who either will do cardio or not workout at all then yes do cardio, but then I would also encourage you to give strength training a try at least once a week – in fact, it will actually help your cardio performance because your joints and bones will be stronger to handle the repetitive force you’re putting on them

Kind of in the same way that cardio will help you out if you feel like you’re gassed by the end of your workout

But let’s switch to the benefits of resistance training.. This was something I was personally skeptical about since I was afraid of becoming too bulky, but after dedicating the last 3 years of my life to primarily strength train, I can confidently say I have never felt better in my body and able to eat so much food with no change on the scale

It doesn’t mean I don’t do cardio, I love playing soccer or ultimate on Sundays and every now and then going for a run or taking a fitness class, but most of my workouts are strength focused and consistent with the same programming I follow for about 4-6 weeks at a time 

Strength training is playing the long game, but the benefits are incredible

You can use a few different forms to create the resistance strength training provides

There’s bands, suspension trainers, your own body weight, and then actual weights

But resistance training is really any form of exercise that challenges your plane of motion using various muscle groups and tempos

Using actual weights will have the best benefit because you can continue to increase the weights which will aid in building muscle and giving you that defined, sculpted look

But that doesn’t mean workouts only using bands or suspensions trainer or your body are not effective

So let’s dive into the specific benefits you see, feel, and experience from consistent strength training

To begin, building muscle will lower your body fat percentage because that percentage is your body’s ratio of lean mass to fat mass and by utilizing this workout tool you’re putting on more lean mass thereby changing the ratio of lean to fat mass

Muscle also speeds up your metabolism because muscle takes a lot of energy on your body to maintain and if you’re sending the “i need muscle on my body” signal to your body then your body is going to try it’s hardest to preserve what you’re building since it believes you need muscles for survival

Again bringing it back to caveman times… we needed muscle when we were settling down somewhere and building our homes.. Your body does not care about aesthetics, it cares about functionality.. It’s you who cares more about the aesthetics which is perfectly understandable given the society we live in today with social media and lots of mirrors

The way it’s increasing your metabolism is because of the energy it takes to preserve the muscles, and what else is measured in energy.. Calories.. So you are burning more calories at rest due to your body working to keep up with the muscle you are requesting to be there

Yes there’s EPOC with cardio and EPOC is really the energy you burn as your body cools down and repairs itself.. but I want to compare the two

With cardio – your EPOC is roughly about 30-60 minutes post workout as your heart rate calms, you stop sweating, and you return to a normal state

With strength training your EPOC can be anywhere from 24-48 hours after you lift weights because it’s repairing the muscle strands that you essentially ripped, in a good way, as you lifted weights

Resistance training also gives your body shape.. One important thing to note is that you cannot spot reduce fat but you can spot build muscle

So you can target certain muscle groups that help a body insecurity you may have

There’s also a slower backtrack time or body regression that takes place when you consistently strength train and then say go on a trip or get sick or get injured.. Your body won’t lose the muscle it built right away

There was a study done in 2012 on endurance athletes versus strength athletes and it showed that the endurance athletes saw a decline in performance after just a few days off and up to a 25% reduction in performance after a 3-4 week break

Where skeletal muscle stayed about the same, because our bodies are good at maintaining overall strength

This is so helpful if you’ve ever gone on a trip and feel like a blubbery fish by the end of it.. I know that’s what would happen to me when I was a cardio junky and I felt like I lost all of my progress and now my body remains unphased when I have a trip booked on my calendar

Weight training also strengthens your bones and joints which is what I mentioned earlier if you love your cardio but especially as you age and especially especially as you reach menopause and afterwards.. I know this is a podcast for twenty-somethings but build the base now so you don’t suffer the repercussions as you age

Speaking of which, resistance training is so so so good for balancing your hormones and blood sugar levels

In regards to your hormones, lifting weights releases testosterone which is a growth hormone that both men and women need and will improve your mood, energy levels, and sex drive

The insulin resistance it provides is because of the demands building muscle puts on your body so it uptakes more energy and glucose from the foods you’re eating

Some other benefits include confidence in your appearance, improved posture, fixes imbalances between the left and right side of your body, and the feeling of independence because you can lift heavy things and don’t need assistance carrying in your groceries or placing your luggage in the overhead bin on a plane

You’ll have less back pain because of the improved posture too and you’ll age like fine wine

To my ladies listening, you’ll bounce back from pregnancy a lot faster because your body is much more resilient when lifting heavy things is your primary source of working out and you’ll experience less negative effects with aging and gravity’s effect on that matter

And then not to mention looking good for bathing suit season or looking good naked in general

I’m biased towards resistance training for a reason, but I also know the hesitations for my ladies of feeling intimidated by the gym or the fear of getting too bulky – which hiring a trainer or downloading my free resource will help with the intimidation because you’ll have a plan and know what you’re doing and you won’t get too bulky unless you’re on steroids

Oh and to add, soreness and sweat are not indicators of a good workout – you can have an effective workout and not drop one ounce of sweat and soreness is actually a sign that you did too much and you need to lift less weights the next time until your body can build the strength to keep up with the weights

I can’t remember if I’ve explained this on a past episode, but I’m going to explain the use of soreness and exercise to you using an analogy of applying sunscreen

Let’s say it’s the middle of winter and you decide to take a trip to the bahamas… what are you going to do before you go out onto the beach

Apply sunscreen

That applying sunscreen translates to properly warming your body up for a workout

Now what happens if you go out in the sun for too long? Again rhetorical question… you’ll get a sunburn

That sunburn is your soreness

What happens when you have a sunburn and go back out in the sun? It hurts like hell and will get worse

The same thing happens when you’re sore and go back and workout the next day.. You need to take a rest day like you would stay out of the sun until your burn has healed

A little burn that fades into a tan the next day is the exact level of soreness we’re looking for.. It’s when you move in a certain way and you just barely feel the muscles you worked out.. Almost like you have search for the soreness

Not it hurts to just get out of bed or off your office chair

And overtime, going back to the sun, you won’t get burnt every time you go outside, unless you have really fair skin

But that means that every time you workout especially as you repeat the workouts you’re doing, you’re not going to experience soreness every time and that doesn’t mean your workout wasn’t effective in building muscle

You’re still building muscle and recomping your body don’t worry

Now, whether you take up cardio, fitness classes, or resistance training know that anything you choose is better than nothing

This goes for yoga and pilates and barre as well

They all have massive benefits to your mental health and your body’s health in general… the tool you choose is based on your goals, which I’m going to reiterate 

So if you like to do races, or play sports, or want the team aspect in your life from when you were kid, or general heart health and burning calories then choose cardio

If you want physique goals, overall strength, a different shape to your body then choose resistance training – again to repeat not in a group fitness setting because that is cardio with weights

Let’s say you are someone listening who is not working out at all and you are ready to get started or if you are resistant to moving your body because it feels like another tedious thing to add to your neverending to do list then start with something that peaks your interest

I always have online clients begin with something they enjoy, or they are interested in, or they can do with their significant other – but something that gets the ball rolling

For example, one of my clients loves salsa dancing so when we were first getting started together we made sure she was salsa dancing once a week to invite movement back into her life

I had a husband and wife with 4 kids when I was first starting out as a coach and I had them do dance parties with their kids

If you are resistant to exercise as in it feels like the most daunting task to do, then you need to begin with breaking down your belief that exercise has to be some boring, rigid thing

Make it fun and eventually your relationship to exercise will improve and it will become something you crave for yourself

But you need something on a regular basis

And the last thing I want to bring up is the role your fitness watch plays.. I already mentioned very briefly that you should not believe everything your watch tells you – like your watch telling you that you burned 800 calories in one workout is a bunch of bullshit

Your watch is severely inaccurate unless it was the most high intensity workout you’ve ever done and left you on the floor gasping for air.. Even then you probably did not burn 800 calories

Use your watch as the tool it is.. Don’t be married to the numbers but as a guide to your activity levels on a day to day basis

I already mentioned that I have a tendency to overtrain my body and I have a very active career with personal training, so I actually use my watch as a way to tell me to sit my butt down for the rest of the day because I’ve already done too much activity

If you have a desk job don’t worry about that, but if you have a nursing job or a construction job or really any blue collar job and there’s a lot more labor required to your body, then yeah use the watch to reel you back in so you don’t overtrain

The bottomline is, exercise is crucial to a happy and healthy life, you need to incorporate it on a regular basis in some way

And if you need help, please for the love of god stop hesitating and reach out to me I would be honored to help you out

But hopefully you now have a better idea as to what type of exercise is going to be the best one for you to choose based on the goals you are after

I want to thank you for listening to another episode of how to twenty-something, if you liked what you heard if you had some kind of brain exploding aha moment, if you’re going to start up with exercising because of what you just heard then please share this episode, email me what you loved most, post it on social media, send it to a friend that you want to encourage to begin working out regularly

Otherwise this concludes another episode and I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new one