Second Wind Fitness with Brock Armstrong: Recent Episodes
Brock Armstrong
I have one goal: to help you think differently about exercise so you can move more of your body, more often, in more and more interesting ways. None of us want to exercise harder or longer to get good results (we have jobs, families, and lives). We want to exercise smarter not harder, and we want to have fun while doing it.
As I, Coach Brock Armstrong (formerly the Get-Fit Guy), begin the second half of my first century on this planet (I just turned 50), I will use my background in Cognitive Behavioural Theory, endurance sport, and a lifelong love of movement to help you move through this world with ease, now and later in life. This podcast isn’t about getting skinny, ripped, or jacked - but it is about being fit, capable, strong, healthy, and happy!
Whether you were fit when you were younger and let it slide, you never found a fitness program that worked for you, or you are just tired of working so hard to stay fit, it’s time to get your second wind.
Amateur and pro athletes alike are wearing compression gear and using compression machines to (hopefully) improve their performance and/or speed up their recovery. But do these skin-tight suits really do anything?
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Don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at https://brockarmstrong.com/youtube
Find out more about Yoga15 at https://www.brockarmstrong.com/yoga
Lora Giangregorio PhD is research Chair in Mobility and Aging at the University of Waterloo. Her work has led to the development of the "Too Fit To Fracture" Exercise and Physical Activity Recommendations for Individuals with Osteoporosis. Her aim is to reduce the burden of osteoporotic fractures.
This is how it goes - as we get older, we lose muscle and bone, we become less active, and some people develop a bone disease called osteoporosis. Osteoporotic fractures can be the reason a person can no longer live in their own home. They cause pain and disability, and are more common than heart attack, breast cancer and stroke combined.
Researchers like Dr. Giangregorio know that exercise can prevent falls, and emerging research suggests that it may prevent bone loss. However, people who already have osteoporosis (like me) are often afraid of fracturing, and want to know what types of exercise are safe AND effective. The sad truth is that we know a lot less about how to guide exercise in people at high risk of fracture.
And on top of that, inactivity is highly prevalent in older adults. So Lora has been looking into how we can get patients to do the right types and amount of exercise, and to get health care providers to give the right advice. Her Bone health and Exercise Science lab leads clinical trials and guidelines, and collaborative work with patients and healthcare providers to answer these questions.
Sick of not making progress? Let’s fix that at https://weighless.life/quiz
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We all know that medical science has come up with more than a few ways to treat high blood pressure, which is great. But to what extent can we simply lower our blood pressure by exercising?
If your heart can take it easy and not work as hard to pump all your life-giving blood, then the force on your arteries will decrease and that will in turn lower your blood pressure. We all know that consistent physical activity can make your heart stronger so it follows that a stronger heart muscle will pump your blood with less effort. But what else can we do?
Check out:
Yoga15 and us the code BROCK33 to get 33% off at brockarmstrong.com/yoga
Ultimate Thyroid Course and use the code BROCK to get 15% off brockarmstrong.com/thyroid
Despite the fact that you can buy an activity tracking device for your toddler or your pet now, there is actually little evidence that shows they can do anything to improve your fitness. And sure, it would be easy to blame the devices themselves, but I think there is more to this issue than simply inaccurate data.
Cool-looking wristbands, rings, foot pods, and even hats that promise to measure your heart rate, steps, sleep, calories burned and even stress levels can be seen on everyone these days. And yet (not to be a bummer) sedentarism, low fitness levels, obesity and cardiovascular disease remain on the rise. What's going on here?
Don't forget to go to BrockArmstrong.com/walkwell to increase your walking distance, speed and enjoyment.
In this special episode, sourced from the archives of my old podcast, WorkplaceHero, we dive into neck pain and how to deal with it. Neck pain can be caused by any workplace activity that strains your neck and you might feel pain at the base of your skull and down into your shoulders, or you might just feel a knot in your neck. But it is avoidable - and that is what we cover in this episode.
Don't forget to check out all of my workout videos at BrockArmstrong.com/YouTube
Resistance bands are small, portable, inexpensive, and easy to use anywhere and anytime. If you need some help (or some convincing) to get your resistance training underway, this is for you!
This likely won't be news to you but I will say it anyway - consistent resistance training provides so many health benefits that I think everyone should be doing it. But, I also know that the items we usually associate with resistance training (barbells, dumbbells, weight plates, and big exercise machines) are scary, intimidating, heavy, expensive, and take up a lot of space. So, unless you have or want to get a gym membership then you might think that bodyweight exercises are the perfect strength training workout. And they are but don't forget about the big elastic band thingies - enter resistance bands!
Check out my Mindset Reset at Weighless.Life/Mindset
In the episode, I am joined by sports medicine researcher and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, Dr. NiCole Keith, Ph.D. to discuss the elusive topic of Exercise for Post-Menopausal Women.
Dr. NiCole Keith is a Professor from the Department of Kinesiology and associate dean of faculty affairs in the School of Health & Human Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Keith is dedicated to research and programming that increases physical activity participation, improves fitness, and positively influences health outcomes while addressing health equity.
In the episode we get into:
- What got NiCole interested in pursuing this topic of exercise in menopausal and post-menopausal women.
- How can a woman in these stages of life (or approaching these stages) begin to create an effective movement regimen? What should they keep in mind when choosing their activities and workouts?
- The million-dollar question: what are the best types of exercises for menopausal and post-menopausal women?
- Are there any health risks that women should be aware of? Is there ever a reason not to engage in physical activity?
- What is health equity and what can we do in our own communities to help?
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Whether you want to get back in shape or you want to get in shape for the very first time, improving your fitness begins by starting where you are, setting reasonable goals, and tracking your progress. In this episode, will tell you how.
Some people haven't ever been interested in moving their bodies, but then are suddenly faced with a doctor telling them they need to get in shape - or else. Others were fit years ago (maybe in high school or college) but once they stopped competing in team sports, or left their fit friends behind, they never found fun and suitable replacement for that physical activity.
The interesting thing is that these are similar but slightly different issues.
Check out Brad's Morning Movement Routine at BrockArmstrong.com/bradmorning
You may have heard me say that you should do a particular exercise at a particular intensity or your doctor may have told you to get 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity exercise per week. Do you need to buy an activity tracker or get a kinesiology degree to know exactly how intense these workout should be? The truth is that you probably already innately know how hard you are exercising. It's called Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and it's already installed in your brain!
Check out Brad's Morning Routine at BrockArmstrong.com/bradmorning
Learn more about the Nutrition GPA at nutritiongpa.com
In a paper called Exercise contagion in a global social network published in Nature Communications, researchers say that “we show that exercise is socially contagious and that its contagiousness varies with the relative activity of and gender relationships between friends.”
There is still time to join this session of the Weighless program. Just go to weighless.life/enrollment
Find out more about Brad's comprehensive online multimedia educational course with all the tools and guidance you need to implement a custom-designed morning exercise routine, scalable to all fitness levels and time availability. Improve fitness, focus, and discipline all day! And use the code: brad10 to get 10% off at sign-up.
There is still time to join this session of the Weighless program. Just go to weighless.life/enrollment
The benefits of lifting heavy things that I outline in this episode:
- That Toned Look
- Use Body Fat as Fuel
- Get Smarter
- Support Your Testosterone (and other hormones)
- Protect Your Bones, Joints and Tendons
- Build or Maintain Bone Strength
- Lower Your Blood Pressure
- Improves Endurance
- Support Good Mental Health
- Helps Manage Chronic Pain
- Supports Liver Health (and insulin sensitivity)
- Slow Down the Ageing Process
If you are a serious (or even recreational) exerciser, you want to get faster/stronger. That is, after all, where some of the fun of our dedicated exercise time is derived. And for many of us, getting faster or making those hard-fought-for muscles more noticeable, means losing some body fat. This can be a tricky endeavour when you are also trying to enjoy your workouts, live an active lifestyle, be good at your job, raise a family, and maybe even perform well in some races and events.
While you want to “weigh less,” you also don’t want to lose any precious muscle that you know helps you do the activities you enjoy.
So, in this episode, I have asked nutrition and behaviour change coach Monica Reinagel to join me to talk about how and why the idea of “losing weight” is a lot more meaningful and nuanced than it used to be.
- What Body Composition really is,
- How this is different from hitting a specific number on the scale,
- What happens when we lose weight too quickly,
- What happens when we yo-yo diet,
- Why it is important to maintain (or build) muscle mass especially as we age,
- How much protein we need to maintain muscle mass,
- How feeling stronger and more capable creates a virtuous cycle which leads to losing body fat (and supports our weight loss efforts),
- Three things we can do to help our bodies lose more fat than muscle.
Resources:
- Weighless.Life
- Protein Content of Common Foods
- Protein Density of Foods
- Change Academy podcast
- Nutrition Diva podcast
Monica’s favourite of Brock’s YouTube videos:
TV Time (or watching hockey) Workout
7 Fun Ways to Use a Treadmill
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
LANGUAGE WARNING: we do drop the f-bomb three (maybe four) times (in reference to Elle’s book, Confident As Fu*k: How To Ditch Bad Vibes, Clean Up Your Past, And Cultivate Confidence In Order To Make Your Dreams A Reality). So if you or someone near you is really put off by that word… well, you have been warned.
Elle is a bestselling author, a screenwriter, and a seasoned public speaker and has been interviewed on over 50 shows and featured in publications such as Success Magazine, Huffington Post, Prevention, and Mind Body Green. Elle coaches ambitious high achievers and transformation seekers to manifest more confidence and self-esteem in all areas of their lives. Creating boundaries, generating happiness and fun, accomplishing goals, and improving communication.
If you want to hear the rest of the interview and check out everything else Elle does, simply go to ElleRuss.com.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
After any workout (cardio or weights) your muscles are tired and very quickly begin breaking down in order to rebuild (this is a good thing). That time, right after you finish exercising, is a critical time for muscle tissue repair, strength building, and overall recovery. That is where your cool-down comes into play.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Dr. Heisz joins me on this episode to talk about her research which examines the effects of physical activity on brain function to promote mental health and cognition in young adults, older adults and individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Her book: Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep, focuses on overcoming inertia; using exercise to help fight addictions; how we can improve our memory with fitness even as we age; and, importantly, how exercise can help us sleep better, improve focus, and be more creative.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
When we choose to walk to the store instead of driving there, we might be heard saying that we are “getting some exercise.” When we go to the gym or any fitness class, we go there to exercise. When we start training for a marathon, we again think or talk about it in terms of doing some sort of exercise.
While all of these statements are mostly accurate, at least to a certain extent, I think this line of thinking gets us in trouble. And not just semantic trouble that confuses people who are learning English as a second language but actual fitness-confusion kind of trouble. So I propose that we look at fitness in a different way.
To that end, let me introduce you to three (not so) new labels for exercise: Movement, Workouts, and Training. And in that order.
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Debbie Potts, is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), DNAFit coach, Metabolic Efficiency Specialist, CHEK HLC Coach, KION and Superhuman Coach, USAT Coach and NASM CPT. Whoa! Debbie is a leading fitness professional for over twenty-five years who owned Fitness Forward Studio in Bellevue, WA for over ten years.
Main topics included:
- How she ended up burnt out and sick.
- What does she attribute her burnout to?
- How does stress (all stresses) relate to our fitness?
- How Debbie uses DNA reports to guide her training.
- Would she train for a long-distance race again?
- How Debbie trains now.
- What tracking device does Debbie trust/use and how?
- How Debbie uses variability in her routine.
- A healthier and happier way to approach training as we age.
- Should we look for the perfect diet, workout, or lifestyle?
- What time Brock and Debbie go to sleep.
- How to choose when to get your movement in.
- Taking ownership of your own health and happiness.
- What are some red flags to watch out for in your day?
- What are the components of Debbies “Wholestic method?”
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
You probably know someone (or maybe you are someone) who has limited mobility in their shoulders. I have been noticing this more and more in family members and people I work with. Sure, some of them have had an acute injury that caused it (or at least kicked it off) but the majority of people, I would suggest, are suffering more from the old move-it or lose-it issue.
Their shoulder movements started to get difficult over time, maybe with some amount of pain, and so they decided to “rest” that body part - or more specifically, that body area. The problem with that is unless there is an injury that actually requires rest (rarely ever longer than a few weeks), this is the opposite of what you should be doing.
But I am not going to try to give you physiotherapy sessions via podcast (because that is dumb and I am not a physiotherapist) but what I will give you is a movement that you can practice as a bit of pre-hab for that entire upper area of your torso.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Alex Wisch is a Performance & Wellness Coach, Entrepreneur, Athlete, and Mental Health Activist.
Throughout his life, he has faced significant adversity. Alex has struggled with ADHD, dyslexia and, in his early teens, battled anorexia. Regardless of the challenges he faced, he showed great promos by becoming one of the top sailors in the country by age 18 and got accepted into an Ivy League school.
As a sophomore in college, his struggles and perfectionism became overwhelming. He found himself deeply depressed and developed constant suicidal thoughts. His decade-long major depression left him penniless, on disability, and unable to work.
Doctors even told Alex he needed to reduce his expectations and would never be able to hold a full-time job. However, he refused to have those words define him. Alex eventually dismissed the idea of finding a medication that would “fix him”. He began focusing on all the things that were within his control and developed a holistic formula to optimize his success.
Topics covered in this episode:
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Why the heck did Alex do 1,000 strict pull-ups, 2,000 push-ups, and 3,000 squats, all while wearing a 20-pound weighted vest?
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Was Alex active as a child and youth? What was his childhood like?
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How was he taught to view and perform exercise?
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How did depression affect Alex? What did he try to alleviate his depression?
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How did he discover the idea that physical health could help his mental health?
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When you are that depressed, how did he even start an exercise routine?
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How did Alex develop his “holistic formula" and create his own user manual?
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The four things people can start doing right away to develop their own user manual.
You can find out more about Alex on his WischFit Instagram account.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
If you’ve ever owned a motor vehicle (or a fancy bike), you know that routine maintenance (getting the oil changed, checking your tire pressure, monitoring the brake pads, etc.), can keep your vehicle running well and on the road for a long time. Every so often, however, a more comprehensive tune-up is recommended.
In the same way, healthy habits like eating well, staying active, managing stress, and so on, go a long way toward keeping your body and life running smoothly But every once in a while, our lives can benefit from a more thorough going over.
So on the Change Academy podcast, just for fun, we’ve organized our tuneup into 10 parts, each corresponding to a different part of a car, from the onboard computer, through the navigation system, alignment, brakes, all the way through to the filters, shock absorbers and THE ENGINE (which is what I am about to play for you).
Whether or not you currently have any warning lights flashing on the dashboard of your life, I hope you will enjoy this dive into how to maintain your engine as you put on more and more miles.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
A “Coach to the coaches,” Abel has worked with thousands of people across the world to optimize performance, mindset, health and longevity. He also has an A.B. from Dartmouth College and graduated as a Senior Fellow with Honors with a concentration in Psychological and Brain Sciences. So, as you can imagine, we dviate a little from the "fitness world" but I think you will agree that it all fit together nicely.
In this episode, we cover:
- The fun and embarassing (for me) story of how we met.
- Abel's personal history with movement and exercise.
- How he made such a big mindset shift in his exercise and diet.
- How Abel formed his attitudes and opinions around exercise and movement.
- As someone who has studied the brain, how Abel reconciled the attitudes and options he had with what he was learning from the mainstream media.
- How being the "Fat-Burning Man" affected his life and exercise routine.
- How his success on the TV show "my diet is better than yours" affected him.
- What Abel has changed in his regimen over the last few years (as he is getting older).
- And the lesson I learned when I got caught cheating on a test.
Find everything you need to know about Abel James at fatburningman.com
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
The research paper: Sitting, squatting, and the evolutionary biology of human inactivity published in the proceedings of the national academy of science concludes with this: “Based on our results, we introduce the Inactivity Mismatch Hypothesis and propose that human physiology is likely adapted to more consistently active muscles derived from both physical activity and from nonambulatory postures with higher levels of muscle contraction.”
This translates to something like…
Hunter-gatherers have high levels of inactive time — around 10 hours per day, which is surprisingly similar to the inactive time in industrialized populations like here in Canada where I am and likely near you, wherever you are listening to this podcast right now.
What?!? I know right? So what the hell is going on?.
The researchers went on to say” However - and this is a big however – in Hadza adults, inactive time often occurred in a squatting position, which increased levels of muscle recruitment and could be considered “active rest”, in contrast to sitting in a lumbar supported car, then transferring to an expensive office chair, only to conclude the day on a pillowy couch.
In this episode, I get into some practical antidotes to this issue.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Craig “Crowie” Alexander grew up playing a range of sports soccer, cricket, water polo, golf and tennis, although soccer was his main game. The sport you know Crowie best for, triathlon, he didn’t compete in until the age of 20.
Alexander raced his first professional triathlon in Sydney, Australia on the ITU World Cup circuit in 1995, finishing in 8th place. He also claimed his first professional victory later that same year. He went on to have many wins and with his 2011 victory in Kona Hawaii, he also broke the previous course record which had stood for 15 years and became the oldest athlete ever to win the IM World Championship title (38 yo).
In 2014, Crowie stepped away from Ironman racing and launched his own brand, Sansego. He teamed up with an elite group of endurance coaches and experts to deliver coaching, consulting, clinics and training camps/experiences.
To this day, Alexander has maintained a high level of fitness and professional results, even though only racing sparingly. As a professional athlete, Crowie has won at least one pro race every year of his career (1995-2019).
Main Topics:
- Since Crowie didn’t actually take up the sport that he is most known for until he was 20, what was his fitness life like before triathlon?
- How did playing soccer, cricket, tennis allow him to "go pro" a year after switching to Triathlon? Not only go pro but win races?
- How did he balance going to University (BS in Physiotherapy) and being a professional athlete? How did he stay motivated in both arenas?
- What gear and recovery tools did he use when training and racing so hard?
- Because a main theme of this podcast is addressing how to stay fit as we age, I had to ask him about being “the oldest athlete” to ever win the IM world champs at 38yo. Was there anything he changed in his training at that time?
- Craig still pops up in races - and wins them - now (at age 47) which gives people like me (50) hope. What training advice would does he have for an ageing age grouper like me?
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
What is a Movement Snack? A movement snack, as I define it, is a brief bout of movement that is both efficient and easy to perform, done on a regular basis throughout the day (rather than solely relying on one dedicated workout).
Yes, I am suggesting that you simply get up and move occasionally to create a more active lifestyle!
Now you may be saying, “Come on Brock. Can short bursts of exercise sprinkled across your day allow you to achieve your goal of living a more active lifestyle?” Well, don’t just take my word for it - Science says it does!
Which is great news for those of you who don't enjoy (or maybe even hate) exercise. Because, I suspect those people feel that way because they have it in their heads that exercise needs to happen at a specific time, in a specific setting, in a specific outfit, and usually involves willpower and struggle to get it done. If that describes you, not only do I beg you to rethink and reconsider what exercise really is but I also want you to pay double attention to what I am going to say:
Any movement - ANY movement - that raises your heart rate (a little or a lot), challenges your muscles (a little or a lot), and teases your balance and mobility (a little or a lot) is exercise. And if done consistently, can help you achieve these wonderful benefits.There is no need to get a gym membership, buy spandex clothing, or swallow your exercise time like yucky medicine.
Find Brock's morning movement routine at: BrockArmstrong.com/morning
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Abi Carver (of Yoga15.com) is on a mission to bring yoga to men and women, passionate about their sports, who are training hard, looking for the edge and who recognize that yoga is a highly effective performance and recovery tool but don't know where to start.
In this episode, we focus on Abi's skills as being someone who has identified how you can use yoga to benefit sports performance not by becoming a full-on yogi but by using yoga to build flexibility, mobility, balance, strength, coordination, and accuracy.
We also dispel the myth that our goal should always be to just get more and more flexible (instead of being functionally flexible) but mostly we dig into some specific ways that we can use yoga to perform better in our chosen sport but also to stay mobile as we age … even if you aren’t interested in doing one-handed-lotus-inversions :)
You can find Abi at:
https://yoga15.com
https://www.strava.com/athletes/24184752
https://www.instagram.com/yoga15abi/
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
One of the things I love most about where I live is that I can walk to the beach (it’s 120 steps, I counted). Granted, I live in Canada… on Vancouver Island… so much of the year the water is 8 degrees celsius (or colder). But when we moved here in November of 2020, I decided that I would go to the beach as many mornings per week as I could muster. And after a few weeks of walking along the shore and staring out at the water, I started joining some friendly folks who going in the water for a plunge.
I immediately was hooked.
Yes, I grew up playing outside in Edmonton winters (often -40c), I also used to take ice baths when I was training hard for races, and I have always preferred cool showers to hot ones (you will very rarely find me in a hot tub) but this is a whole new level of cold exposure.
In this episode, I get into the science behind cold water swimming, along with some help from Dr. Andrew Huberman (you can see the full lecture he gave about this on his instagram page).
You can also read the full article I wrote about my plunges.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Brad Kearns is an American author, podcast host, professional Speedgolfer, Masters high jumper, and former professional triathlete. Kearns dominated the international triathlon circuit from 1986 to 1995 and won 31 events worldwide. He is a 2020 top-3 world-ranked Masters age 55-59 high jumper and in 2018, he broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest single hole of golf ever played. Impressed yet?
Kearns hosts the B.rad Podcast, covering health, fitness, peak performance, happiness, and longevity, with an emphasis on toning down the overly intense and self-important competitive disposition in favour of cultivating a pure motivation and releasing the attachment of self-esteem to the outcome of your peak performance pursuits.
Topics covered:
- What pro athletes actually share about their training.
- How different Brad’s life was when he was a professional triathlete (he slept a LOT)
- How stress factors in to out training
- What role our Central Nervous System plays in fitness
- Some lessons we can learn from smart athletes (they’re not destroying themselves at every workout)
- How long Brad thinks most races should really be (it’s shorter, not longer)
- Why we should stop saying “it’s only a 5k.”
- What we see as “normal” for older individuals is not necessary
- How too much chronic-cardio is actually bad for you (it’s a bell curve)
- The importance of maintaining muscle mass as we age
- What exactly HIRT is and why it is do beneficial
- How most of us are doing HIIT wrong (too long and not hard enough)
- When you should really end your workout (listen to your body)
- Why Brad DNFed (did not finish) as many times as he was on the winner’s podium
- Brad’s top three tips
- Why Brad does nearly the same thing every single morning
Find Brad at bradkearns.com and his morning routine on YouTube at https://youtu.be/-IPPwBc3GLw
Other Resources:
- The Primal Endurance book
- Run for your life! At a comfortable pace, and not too far: James O'Keefe at TEDxUMKC
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
It's true! by being creative with our movement time, we can turn even the most dreaded of exercise machines into a fun game. A game that not only challenges our fitness but allows us to expand our balance, coordination, mobility, stability, flexibility, agility, and accuracy.
So while running on a treadmill or cycling on a stationary bike can be good for our heart, lungs, and legs it is a biomechanically repetitive set of movements. And again, I am not yucking anyone’s yums - I love both running and cycling - but I also know that my body craves more than that.
Let’s face it, after months of performing the same movements, again and again, your body will become very efficient at performing those specific movements. While that is advantageous for sport and competition, it severely limits the level of your overall fitness and also limits your potential for health and wellness in general.
I have often been heard saying (or seen writing) "In my perfect world, calorie counters would be banned from all exercise machines. Instead, I would add 'number of limbs moved' or 'variety of planes used' or, even better, I would add a 'level of enjoyment' meter."
The reason I am more interested in the number of limbs involved in an exercise, or the variety of planes (or levels) involved in that movement, is for many of the same reasons that I encourage you to do more than just run on your treadmill.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Tim "Lucho" Waggoner raced as a professional triathlete where he placed top 12 at the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships, won the USA National Ironman Championship back in 2004 and was the US Triathlete of the year in 2000.
After retiring from triathlon, Tim dove headfirst into ultra racing where he won (and broke the course record) in his first 50-mile trail race.
He then went on to place 6th at the Leadville 100 and was the overall winner of the Leadman series in 2012, which includes all of the Leadville races. So yeah, he is a bit of a badass.
In our chat, we get into:
- Tim's history as an endurance athlete
- When and why he got into coaching
- What he learned from being a coach
- Why “it depends” is often the answer to so many fitness (and life) questions
- How he is approaching his athletic goals are now
- How his priorities and reasons to be fit/durable have changed over the years.
Then Tim offers three nuggets - workouts, mindsets, strategies, or advice for listeners who want to upgrade their fitness.
You can hear Tim on the Ask the Coaches podcast episodes at enduranceplanet.com and you can find him online at instagram.com/runnerlucho
Visit BrockArmstrong.com for more episodes, videos, articles, newsletters and more!
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Like most things in life, being successful comes down to two things: preparing yourself properly and not biting off more than you can chew.
The “too much, too soon” injuries that I cover in this episode, are things like shin splints, IT band friction syndrome, patellofemoral pain syndrome, sacroiliac joint pain, Achilles tendonitis, rotator cuff tendonitis and the list of itis-es goes on. These are the real-life villains that affect exercisers (especially new or ageing ones) every day.
These are the true fitness gremlins that are hiding in the dark corners waiting for us to let our form falter, our technique slip, our ego get the best of us, or that skipped recovery day in favour of yet another exercise session. These issues are well worth our attention and concern.
Visit BrockArmstrong.com for more episodes, videos, articles, newsletters and more!
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Molly is the host of the Breaking the Bottle Legacy podcast, where she shares her own experience with changing her long-standing drinking patterns and creating a healthier and more peaceful relationship with alcohol.
In this episode, we dig into the science and mindset around how alcohol affects:
- Hydration
- Refuelling
- Performance
- Muscle building and maintenance
- Recovery and injuries
- Sleep
- And some specific information (or misinformation) about beer.
Visit BrockArmstrong.com for more episodes, videos, articles, newsletters and more!
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Right off the bat, I am going to say this: the point of this episode is not to start some sort of measuring contest between me and you or you and your friends on social media. The point of measuring your fitness is more complex than that.
First, having an initial test result when you start a new exercise program or movement regimen can give you a baseline, so future testing can be compared to this and any changes you make can be quantified.
Second, establishing this baseline can be especially important if you are embarking on a new training regimen and have no idea where to start. Do you do 3 sets of 15 reps with 40kg or half that (or double that)? Having this insight into your own fitness level can help you avoid injury from the good old "too much, too soon" situation.
For added fun-with-data (who doesn’t love that?), you can repeat the tests at regular intervals, to see how effective your training program really is. The period between tests may range from two weeks to six months to maybe even yearly. Just keep in mind that it usually takes a minimum of four to six weeks to see a measurable change in any aspect of fitness so don’t do them too often or you may be taxing your body unnecessarily and get bummed out by the seeming lack of progress.
Visit https://www.brockarmstrong.com/how-fit/ to get a fill breakdown of my Second Wind Fitness Test
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Monica Reinagel has been helping people create healthier lives for more than 15 years through her Nutrition Diva podcast, books, online coaching programs, and in-person workshops. As a licensed and board-certified nutritionist, her approach is grounded in science but is also practical and realistic. Monica also co-hosts the Change Academy podcast (with me) and runs the sustainable weight loss program, Weighless (also with me).
In this episode, we dig into:
- What the heck is a calorie?
- How do companies measure the calories in food?
- How do our bodies use the fuel we give them?
- How is calorie expenditure measured?
- How accurate are calorie-in counters (like MyFitnessPal)?
- How accurate are calorie-out counters (like FitBit or Apple Watch)?
- Is there anything we can learn from tracking calories?
- What do we miss when we focus too much on calories?
- What can we do instead of counting calories?
- What is the best way to fuel your workouts?
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Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Think of all the short 10-minute body blasts or 7-minute scientific workouts you have heard of. Or consider the huge focus on HIIT and how you can get “the benefits of a 60-minute workout in half the time.” Or all the electro-stim devices that you don’t even have to move your own muscles to “zap body fat” and “build muscles while you relax.”
What do all of these have in common? They all miss the fact that exercising and moving your body is fun and pleasurable - just like eating your favourite food.
That is to say that it can be fun if we pick the right movements and activities - just like we pick our favourite meals.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
The guest on this episode turned 56 in September and he has done what most people think can’t be done at his age - he is more fit than he has ever been in his life.
My guest on this episode is Dean Dwyer, author of the book, Make Shift Happen, creator of the Extraordinary Willpower course, and the host of The Mindset Show. He is a former educator who now spends his time teaching others how they can be successful in their own lives to change how they look, work and live.
In the episode, we discuss:
- The evolution of Dean's fitness program/plan and mine.
- What do we really want from our bodies?
- How does Dean measure his fitness?
- What role does consistency play?
- Doing activities and workouts that you don’t enjoy?
- How often does Dean truly push himself?
- What are Dean's top three “workouts?” Or perhaps mindsets?
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
In my early coaching career, I specialized in marathon and triathlon coaching. I then went on to coach everyone from fitness models to previously sedentary seniors. But no matter what walk of life people came from, they consistently asked the same seemingly innocent question: How long will I need to “do this” to get fit?
My answer generally alternated between either “as long as possible” or “it depends.” Obviously, neither of these was the answer people wanted to hear.
The reason for my somewhat unsatisfying answer is the topic for this, the first solo episode of my new podcast.
Heads-up: before I get into the meat of that topic, I also share a little about myself and how I became an expert in fitness and movement.
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
I have some amazingly knowledgeable and inspiring guests, interesting topics, cool tests, fun workouts, and mind-blowing information all coming your way in podcast form very soon.
In this episode, I highlight a few of the episodes that are all queued up and ready to help you get your second wind. Including:
--Do You Want To Get Fit Fast?
--The Minimum Viable Threshold with Dean Dwyer (the Successful Body)
--Love the Process, Not Just the Outcome
--The Calorie Conundrum with Monica Reinagel (the Nutrition Diva)
--How Fit Are You?
--Alcohol and Fitness with Molly Watts (Breaking the Bottle Legacy)
--How You Can Avoid Doing Too Much, Too Soon
--Getting Physically Durable with Tim Waggoner (Endurance Planet)
--How Using a Treadmill Wrong Can Boost Your Genes
--What We Can Learn from Pro Athletes with Brad Kearns (B.Rad Podcast)
--How Flexible Do you Really Need to Be with Abi Carver (Yoga15)
--How to Last in Sport and Fitness with Craig "Crowie" Alexander (Ironman)
--How Exercise Can Benefit your Mental Health with Alex Wisch (wischfit.com)
And much much more to come!
Learn more about the Weighess program, or enrol now, at Weighless.life.
Coach Brock Armstrong is not a millionaire. He is not genetically gifted. He's just like you, simply doing the best with what he has. he is an easy-going Canadian, who is easy to talk to, doesn't fall for fads or false hype, and focuses on non-intimidating but effective ways to get and stay healthy and fit.
What you can expect from the Second Wind Fitness podcast in the next few weeks?
Weekly podcast episodes, alternating between:
- one 15 minute solo exploration of exercises and workouts, reviews of popular gyms and gear, plus deep dives into specific aspects of fitness
- and one 45 minute conversation with an expert that I believe we all can learn from.
All the episodes will focus on fitness and movement and how it supports our overall health and wellbeing - including physical health, mental health, emotional wellness, social connectedness, rest, stress, sleep, and more.
So if you are ready to move more of your body, more often, in more and more interesting and satisfying ways, subscribe to the Second Wind Fitness podcast.