A Gooder Life w/ Esther & Jason: Recent Episodes
Jason Hamera
This is your feel GOOD podcast! Humans are constantly changing, and we believe that each and every human has the capacity to do good for the world. This podcast lives in the realm of health and fitness where your hosts, Esther Choi Williams & Jason Hamera, explore popular fitness topics, interview industry experts, and chat with real people about their successes, stories, and struggles. The focus is providing simple solutions to living a Gooder Life for yourself and inspiring others to do the same. Do Gooder, Be Gooder, Live Gooder.
After a month off, Esther and Jason return to the mics, but something is different. This week, the hosts chat about the struggles of going away and coming back to workouts or social media only to find that you aren't the same as you once were. And this can be defeating, causing getting back to the gym difficult. In order to create the motivation to get started on a fitness routine again (or by extension, decrease social media exposure, because the two are linked...) you have to do something different! Give a listen to find out what the hosts suggest, and begin something new.
When I move you move..... ???, Just like that! Thanks Luda, but seriously, this is how the body thinks. It's an interconnected unit that is driven, either by the segments below or above. Because of this, if you have an injury, ache or pain, you can end up compensating, making simple tasks such as standing up, bending down or even traveling on an airplane extremely uncomfortable. But what if there was a way to quickly improve your movementability? That's exactly what the hosts chat about in this episode. How to warm your body up not just for exercise, but for the tasks of everyday life. Enjoy.
On this episode we have the privilege of chatting with our good friend and physical therapist Chad "biceps" Burnham. A student of progressive care, Chad is a Gift fellow who knows the body must be assed, treated and trained as a whole. We chat about creating the courage to go against the traditional model of both physical therapy and personal training and discuss some "must have's" if you want to succeed in building a fitness business. Offering his take on living a Gooder life, Chad is all about community, support, and most importantly being yourself. Enjoy!
Follow Chad's business Proforma PT on IG: https://www.instagram.com/proformptma/?hl=en
Coming off the heels of his first Tedx talk, Jason shares about his journey to the stage. The hosts then take a deep dive into what it takes to find your passion in life. But passion isn't everything, and we can have many of them. However, this episode positions itself that we all have on true purpose in life, and the hosts offer up what they think it is. Enjoy!
We interview movement specialist Tim Facciola talking all things movement, cueing, and what the industry has done to set expectations that might not be super authentic. We dive deep into Tim's movement story, learning how he has remained curious and diligent giving him the ability to see movement the way most don't. From offering cuing tips to debunking some over used practices, this week's episode offers an enormous amount of golden nuggets for anyone looking to add a little spice in their life. Enjoy.
To learn or not to learn, that is the question we discuss in this week's episode. It's time we raise the standards for all fitness trainers and coaches and that begins with encouraging folks to be aware of the quality of post certification training they receive. You'll come to find that not all continuing education in fitness is created equal. Enjoy
Stress...we all have some, and we all handle it differently, but is that true of how the body handles it? On this week's episode, the hosts chat about how stress, what types of things cause stress and they offer some simple ways to cope with it. Turns out we can never really remove all the stress in our lives, in fact, some stress is good for growth. But too much and we find ourselves, paralyzed and hyper focused on only one thing. Removing the stress. They wrap up, chatting about how working out can contribute to overall stress, when to back off and how to adapt when things don't seem to be going your way. Enjoy.
Form or Function? When it comes to core training, many of us become memorized by aesthetics. The coveted 6 pack has become the key metric for identifying a healthy human. But as many of you already know, there's more to the story than meets the eye. On this episode our hosts discuss what goes into core training, how its always seems to be the center of attention and our our relationship with our mid-section changes over time. Enjoy!
Welcome back Esther! And what a topic to return to. This episode the hosts chat about getting the shot. Cortisone shot that is. With Esther getting both her knees done, and Jason having a shot in his elbow years ago, they discuss the process they went through that led them to this choice. Encouraging folks to really evaluate their situations before defaulting to a shot to relieve pain, sometimes it's the only thing that will help. But then! one must be wise enough to seek out the proper training to ensure the pain doesn't come back. If you are in pain and considering getting a cortisone shot to remove it, you won't wanna miss this conversation! Enjoy.
As we await Esther's much anticipated return next week, I have the honor of chatting with my life long best friend Mark El-Rayes. Mark shares his powerful story, beginning as an immigrant, and currently running a political campaign, it's one of extraordinary transformation. Filled with many adventures, struggles, shifts and successes Mark's story culminates in a message to love yourself above all. To Mark, living a Gooder life depends on gaining wisdom. Knowing how to seek comfort in the chaos, we must realize that mental and physical health are inseparable and, it's the environment that's a powerful force in determining our well being. Enjoy!
This week, Jason is flying solo, missing Esther as she takes a much needed vacation, but that gets Jason thinking...how wonderful it is to have a co-host on the podcast. In this short episode, Jason takes that thought and builds it out, claiming that the life we live is populated by relationships. He encourages listeners to take pause, and inventory the relationships in their life, offering insight into the power that lines in between the hard lines, knowing that healthy relationships are key to a Gooder life. Enjoy!
Introducing Jessica W.! Our first interview style podcast, Esther and Jason dive deep into Jessica's incredible fitness journey. Featuring stories of struggle and success, this episode embodies everything it takes to live a Gooder life!
Jessica W. is a personal trainer and fitness instructor online and in person in Atlanta, GA. She has been teaching for over 20 years, adapting her style to the evolving fitness world. Though certified and experienced in formats such as Zumba, Zumba Kids, LaBlast, TRX, step, and Turbokick, Jessica focuses group training primarily on HIIT. She is known for one specific earmark: never repeating a class (format or specific exercises). Jessica began her fitness journey as a runner and continues to compete to this day. However, her fitness journey was not a fluid one. Struggling with pain from age 6, Jessica was diagnosed with a genetic collagen deficiency called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which results in frequent dislocations and unstable proprioception. Because of her own struggles, and her “go get ‘em” attitude, Jessica is dedicated to making sure EVERY person who wants to move their body will be able to in some form or fashion. Mom of three and married to her husband Danny for 23 years, you can find her workouts online:
Facebook @ Fitness With Jess W
Instagram @jessicak7777
After 10 days away, Jason returns and shares his story of the struggles and successes he faced when trying to maintain a workout routine. Accountability is key when traveling away, and this episode takes a deep dive into the exact routine Jason followed, and how that allowed him to re-integrate into his previous training routine. Upon return Esther and Jason chat about some of the mental blocks many will encounter and they provide simple guidance on how to quickly get back to the grind. They conclude with how your body is most likely to respond when you are doing HITT training vs strength training, and how that translates to your subjective fitness feelings after a vacation. While motivation may have been low, the gains upon return came in high, but not in the way you might expect. Enjoy.
We should always strive to do better when working out, but what makes a workout Gooder? Turns out, it's less about the kind of workout you're doing, rather how kind you are to yourself when working out. And, specifically when trying to workout on, or after a vacation. This episode, Jason is getting ready to go away from his typical heavy lifting routine and is fretting losing all his gains. The team talks about the real struggles clients have when thrown off their workout game. They discuss how to plan for time away, what to do upon return, all the while they offer key insights into the making of a Gooder workout. Esther lays down a challenge to Jason! Let's see if he comes back stronger than before he left! To do this he is going to have to maintain an on the go routine and you'll find out what it is. Giving your body a break might lead to a Gooder workout/ life balance, but that break does not mean total time off. Check back next episode to hear the results of Jason's comeback challenge.
In the beginning there was the word, and the word was we gotta look good! In this episode Esther and Jason share their humble story about how they both began as personal trainers, the lessons they learned, and what caused them to go searching for more. Now after a 5 year friendship and a joint vision to make the world a Gooder place, they explain the reason for this podcast, and how their growth as fitness professionals created their vision for mulit-planer training, brain health training and mindfulness while training. Enjoy!
Off the heels of our first episode, we realized we were all over the place! Why? Well, it turns out we might have been having a little brain fog going on. This term has been flying around the media recently as a symptom of Covid-19, but brain fog has long been around. In this episode, Esther and Jason share some personal struggles with brain fog, explain what it is, how to recognize it, and what you can do about it. Enjoy!
We are learning by doing! On our first episode of A Gooder Life, we talk about what it takes to just get going. In fitness, as in life, fear and lack of confidence constantly block our ability to take the first steps in starting a new workout program, changing our eating habits, starting a podcast and many others projects. Optimal IS an illusion, so sometimes it's best to just get going and learn along the way! We chat about some helpful tricks you can use right away to start something new or improve an old habit. Enjoy!