031 - The Intersection of Strength, Recovery & Mindset w/ Megan Joan Bibbo - Health Movement Podcast

[00:00:04] Alright, welcome everybody to another episode of the Health Movement Podcast. My name is Derek. I am a two-sport collegiate athlete, teacher of over 20 years and a certified personal trainer. With me usually is Tim. And as I mentioned in the last show, if you heard, Tim has gotten a new job as a firefighter EMT. We're super proud of him for that. Unfortunately, with the new position, his time is devoted to that, as it should be.

[00:00:32] So he is going to have to step back from the show for a while. Sincerely, I could not have done this and started this without Tim. I was nervous to start. He was too. But I pressured him into doing it with me. So without him, we wouldn't be here at all today.

[00:00:48] So I do want to thank you, Tim. If you're listening to this, I appreciate you and love you, buddy. In the seat is always here when you're ready to come back on. But we're going to try and keep the show going. So if you're listening on YouTube, on Spotify, if you can, you know, if you like what we're doing, please feel free to send it on to others you think would like it like subscribe all that that fun stuff.

[00:01:12] With me today, I have an awesome guest. She was going to come on earlier and we had to reschedule. So she's been super gracious to come back on, even though it was completely my fault before. So I apologize for that. But with us, Megan Bilbo. And Megan is a personal trainer and a yoga instructor and overall a very, very incredible person that I've been super excited to get on here. So Megan, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:01:41] Oh, thank you for having me. I will take the responsibility of not clarifying Pacific Standard or Eastern Time for our first time.

[00:01:49] Oh, that's no, I should know by now to check into that. And I didn't. So that 100% is on me. So no worries. And oh, we're not doctors. So before you start any new programs, change nutrition, anything like that, please consult your physician. All right. So Megan, a little bit about yourself. Would you mind telling us maybe where you are, where you're from, what you do, how you got into all this?

[00:02:19] Oh, my gosh. Yes. So I'm originally from the East Coast, from Massachusetts, but I've been living in Southern California for the past 15-ish years.

[00:02:29] And I have been teaching yoga since 2015. And teaching yoga actually led me to want to start diving into more strength training and eventually just cycled into personal training. And now I compete in powerlifting. And I'm the lead instructor for a corporate chain of yoga studios across South Los Angeles.

[00:02:54] Yes. That's awesome. And for those of you who are also from Massachusetts listening, I can speak for all of you that were incredibly jealous and slightly angry with you because it is frigid and windy and icy and miserable here in Southern California. When you got on camera and I saw it outside. I was like, oh, I'm so jealous right now because it stinks up here.

[00:03:18] But that's awesome that you went from yoga to powerlifting seems like quite a transition there. What brought you from movement to just let's lift as heavy as we can? Um, so I have always been hypermobile. I've always been extremely flat. I mean, I did dance when I was like maybe eight for like two years and that was it. So I've just always been genetically a pretty a pretty mobile person.

[00:03:47] And when I started taking yoga, I noticed very quickly that all of the cues and instructions are really geared towards people who don't have a lot of mobility, who are already very strong and are doing it to get a better stretch. Uh, and so it didn't, it, it led me to be more at risk for injury because I was already very mobile. And the only instruction I was getting was be more mobile and stretch more.

[00:04:14] Um, and I didn't have the strength that I wanted to do a lot of the poses and nobody was really teaching how to develop strength for these poses or inversions or to do things correctly. So I started doing, we had a, we still have a class called yoga sculpt, which is yoga with weights, which is now my favorite to teach.

[00:04:36] So yeah, it's like, you know, like 70% yoga and then some dumbbell movements. And so I just started taking those to the gym and started doing those movements. And I was like, this is, this is really boring. Um, and all of the instructions and all of the, you know, fitness influencers for women at the time was geared towards cardio, uh, cardio and circuit training.

[00:05:00] And to me, that just made me dread going to the gym. I was, I had issues with, um, an eating disorder and compulsive exercise in the past. And so going to the gym to kind of repeat those behaviors didn't feel great for me. Um, and I'm not sure exactly how I found it, but I started looking into more programming for, uh, heavy compound lifts like squats, um, and deadlifts specifically.

[00:05:25] And all of the programs at the time were geared towards power lifting. So, um, linear progression and periodization was really starting to take hold at the time. Yeah.

[00:05:39] And, um, um, Westside barbell had gotten pretty big and some conjugate methods. And so the only programs I could find for strengthening the squat and the deadlift, because who needs bench, um, were, were power lifting programs.

[00:05:56] And so I just, I just started following these programs that I found online and it was such a different form of training for me where I would go to the gym and I didn't feel like I was just trying to burn calories or I was just trying to exercise to get sweaty.

[00:06:17] Um, and I started learning more about my body and how my body moves. And then I just went down the rabbit hole of anatomy and kinesiology and personal training. And I was like, well, you know, if, if I need to know this and learn this, and this is, you know, I had to do this whole investigative dive for myself. Like other people probably need to know this as well.

[00:06:42] Like, I think that we need more women who are aware of the benefits of strength training and that it is very different from what is being promoted. So that's, I, I, I like how you said that what's being promoted. Cause you do see a lot of cardio out there or circuit training or, or things to burn calories. And that seems to be the focus as opposed to building a stronger body. Um, which, you know, the more muscle you have, the more calories you just burn on your own without doing anything.

[00:07:12] Um, and you had asked me, or I had asked you this before. I don't want people thinking I'm just going to spring this on you. Um, but you did mention, um, you know, dealing with an eating disorder at some point in your life. And we haven't really touched on this and I know it might be a trigger for some people or, um, however you might feel about it is something that I think is really important to understand into.

[00:07:36] To, to, um, I don't, if you're comfortable and you said you were, I just want to double check, but if you're comfortable discussing, you certainly aren't the only person out there who's dealt with that. It is far more people than, than we would like it to be. Um, but I didn't know if you, you wanted to talk about that for a few minutes in how you progress from being in that space to where you are now, because you seem to be very comfortable.

[00:08:03] I'm super open to talking about it. I don't talk about it a lot on my social media, just because I feel like, um, the reason I had my eating disorder for so long was because it became my identity. And so I don't also want my recovery to now be my identity. So I'm open to talking about it, uh, with people who want to talk about it.

[00:08:25] And I don't want it to be the only thing that I'm known for. Um, so I, um, I would say it started when I was around 11 and the lots of underlying factors genetically predisposed. Both of my parents suffer from anxiety. Um, my mom's side of the family has a large history of depression.

[00:08:46] I was the first born eldest child. Um, and I was naturally pretty good at anything that I try, like pretty good. I was, you know, top percentile, never the best, but it was easy for me to do well. And I think I was kind of the star of the family because I was also the oldest grandchild on both sides.

[00:09:10] And I was very good at things. So the, I, the bar set for me and my family was that I could do no wrong. Like I would succeed at everything. And to me that started to feel like an expectation, um, less than a compliment. So when I went into, I was, I went to a Catholic school grades K through 12, um, and very small Catholic school.

[00:09:36] And it tends to be that the, the people who are the popular people are the people that are also like straight A's. And there aren't like an in crowd and out crowd and the populars. It's like, if you, if you are the popular, you are also straight A's. You are also captain of the sports teams. You are also in all of the extracurricular activities. Um, so all of my friends were also really good at things.

[00:09:56] And it developed this underlying competition for me that I felt like I just wanted one thing to define myself by. And when I got to fourth or fifth grade, I'm not sure. I switched schools and we all kind of were dabbling with like weight loss and dieting and stuff like that amidst the other competitions that we had extracurricularly and academically.

[00:10:23] And I was like, my mom is also a dietitian. I should point that out. Uh, and so it was always like, well, Megan is here with her V8 splash juice box, um, for snack when we all have, you know, smart food popcorn. And, and so I was the healthy girl and I was kind of like, this is going to be my thing. This is the one I'm going to be really good at. And so I started dieting and losing weight.

[00:10:50] And that, again, it was like, that was, I found my in, I found my niche. I found out what I was going to be good at. And initially it was, I got a lot of attention for that. Um, and my mom caught on really quick because she's a dietitian, fortunately. Yeah. And so she took me to the doctor and they were like, well, you have to eat, like, I'll say trigger warning. Cause I'm going to say like a calorie amount, but the doctor was like, well, you have to eat 12,000, 1200 calories a day.

[00:11:18] And I was like, I wonder if I could eat less than 12 calories a day. And so like that became my bar. And, um, it just got to be really obsessive where my worth was so entrapped with not necessarily whether or not I was losing weight, um, or my appearance.

[00:11:39] I didn't really feel like I was ever fat or anything. It was more so that I needed to achieve this or else I was not good. Like, or else I didn't have this. Yeah. Um, and so a lot of that guilt and I, my first hospitalization was in, um, children's hospital.

[00:11:59] I was put in a child psych ward with, um, a bunch of, I was like 12 at the time and there were a bunch of 16, 17, 18 year olds with eating disorders. And I was the youngest one, um, there. And they were all very, very deeply entrenched in their eating disorders. Um, and I was like, well, I want to be like them. I want to be cool like them.

[00:12:27] And there was a lot of like manipulating the system and how can we get out of eating the things that we're supposed to be eating and how can we exercise behind closed doors? Oh, I can help you. So that place doesn't sound like it was a good thing. It sounded like it made it worse. It made it worse.

[00:12:44] Cause it was like everything that I, yeah, everything that started my eating disorder was like amplified there times a hundred. Um, and, and that pretty much I was, would like be discharged. And at the time they proposed what was called the Maudsley method, which was your parents, um, as a child, your parents forced you to eat. So your parents made all your meals.

[00:13:08] They sat down with you. They watched you eat. It became very contentious between my mother and I, um, Oh, I'm sure. Like trying to get away with not eating, trying to lose weight secretly. Um, and I was, Was that more another competition for you there? You're like, all right, I have a new thing that I'm going to master and be good at.

[00:13:27] Yeah. And yeah. And it just became very tied to my self worth. Like if I could eat, I had to eat a certain amount of calories a day or less, or else I just felt like, like I was worthless as a person. And it just got worse and worse. Um, and anytime my weight would drop below a certain point, the doctors would put me into a different hospital.

[00:13:47] Um, so I was in and out of all the residential and psych wards in the East coast. Um, and I did, I did manage to get, get through high school. Like I would go back in school. I would do some on my own. I would get tutors. I was able to graduate. Um, and I went to college and college.

[00:14:11] I actually was doing okay. It was the first time that I didn't have a bunch of doctors or my parents following me. And I was like, this is going to be a new start. I can have a new identity here. Um, and I ended up getting mono. I think my sophomore or junior year. Um, and I got sick and I couldn't eat and I started losing weight again.

[00:14:37] And it kind of just sunk me right back into the same old trend. And the way that I was able to come out of it, honestly, I, when I was, um, my senior year on my birthday, I was so sick and so underweight and I had taken like a bunch of laxatives and some Tylenol PM.

[00:14:59] And I was just YOLO. Um, and I was, I ended up having seizures on my bathroom floor. My dad called to wish me a happy birthday. And it was like, at that moment I was like, okay, well I can either tell him, uh, what's going on. But if I do that, I'll get taken to a hospital and I'll have to gain weight. And that's like, don't want that.

[00:15:23] Um, or I'm probably going to end up not making it through the night. And I, I, at that point I was like, I would actually rather just die than have to gain weight and go into a hospital again. And so I, I did tell my dad what was going on and they called the hospital and I was taken away in an ambulance and went to the ER and went through like another year of treatment.

[00:15:47] Um, before I, that was the first time in treatment where I was like, I think, I don't think this is something that I can just like say I'm done with anymore. Um, I think I'm at the point where it's probably out of my control. I'm either going to, if I relapse, I'm going to die or I'm going to end up in treatment centers for the rest of my life. And neither of those sound like really great options to me. No, no, definitely not.

[00:16:15] It was also kind of at that point where I realized that I was using my eating disorder kind of as an escape from life, that there were things that I felt were challenging in life that I didn't have to deal with because I could just lose weight and get put in a treatment center.

[00:16:31] Right. I didn't have to deal with all of the daily stresses. Um, I didn't have to deal with any like social issues or anything like all of the adulting things like getting a job, um, that we have to deal with and put up with that are kind of just awful. I could just be like, this is really stressful. I'm going to lose some weight. Somebody's going to put me in a hospital. I'll have a bunch of people my age around me. We get to hang out. Um, and like some of the places were pretty nice. Some of them were horrible, but some of them were nice.

[00:16:59] And it was at that point where I was like, now it doesn't feel like something that I am doing that is proving I'm a strong person. Now it feels like something I'm doing that is actually the opposite of that. Yeah. Wow. So that was a long journey for you. It was pretty much half of my life. Yeah. Um, and was it with that call with your dad that kind of opened your eyes or was it being at that next facility?

[00:17:29] It was both. I think that call was definitely the catalyst to like rock bottom. Um, definitely. I don't think I had ever, you know, projected into the future what it would look like as an adult with an eating disorder. I'd always thought, well, when I'm done with this, like something magically will happen and I will be, you know, able to just live a life.

[00:17:51] Yeah. Wow. Um, thank you for, that's, that's a hell of a journey you went through there. Um, but everything I can see you, you've come out on the other side. So it sounds like the, the people close to you, the people that love you, the, the, the help that you got was, was what you needed. Um, but it also sounds like kind of, you needed to be ready for that help to accept it too.

[00:18:19] Yeah. Which is tough because you can't force people to get help if they're not at that point yet. Um, and I'm not like, I, I, I haven't dealt with it myself. So I, I don't, you know, I'm just kind of speculating, which probably makes me sound like an idiot or, or a jerk. But, um, I, I, I think that's something that's important for other people to hear because it, you know, as a teacher, you see the students as they grow older.

[00:18:47] And I, I teach 10 and 11 year olds. Um, and to hear you say it started at 11, um, yeah, it's kind of, it, it hits home pretty hard because, uh, you, the kids are young, but I guess they're exposed to a whole lot of stuff at, at very early ages. So, um, I'll, I'll definitely have to keep my eyes open for sure.

[00:19:10] But you've made it through that. And now you lift as heavy as you can. And you are a, uh, deadlift state record holder. Uh, is that accurate? Yeah. Well, it is. Yes. Um, it was, it's with WRPF, which is actually dissolved into a new federation now. So I think it still holds. Um, I'm not entirely sure.

[00:19:36] I'm embarrassed to ask cause I have a feeling it's way more than what I can do. Um, but what, what's the record there? Um, I think the record I set was actually, um, 303 pounds. That's a lot of weight. Yeah. That's not, that's not yielding weight. 315 is my best deadlift, but I haven't been able to pull that off in a competition yet. So.

[00:20:06] Uh, that's, that's a lot for people who don't know that's 345 plates on either side. Uh, that, that's a boatload of weight right there.

[00:20:14] Um, I don't know. Deadlifts are one. That's the one lift. Like I forced myself to do it because I know it's good for you, but it's the one that it just, I, my football coach in high school was just hammering into our heads. Like, don't get hurt. You need good form. Um, and that one always terrifies me for some reason. I got the weight belt on and everything else, but it just, uh, yeah, I, I, I've been afraid to hit the three plates.

[00:20:41] So you definitely have done more than I have on that. Um, so that's my, my only redeeming factor. That's that. No, no, it's not. Don't give us that. You have plenty. Um, you did say something. I read one of your posts, um, and you had mentioned the rule of threes, which, um, one of your posts about going, you know, getting through the eating disorder and kind of projecting into the future.

[00:21:09] And what you want to be as you're going forward. Um, do you remember writing about the rule of three? I didn't even check. Five. If I'm having a bad day, it's five, but it's usually, uh, like three minutes, three months, three years. Um, anything that like you're, you're struggling with, whether it's something that you want to do or something that you don't want to do, or even something that is like, um, acutely emotionally activating at the moment.

[00:21:35] Like how much is this going to matter in, in three minutes or three months or in, in three years? Yeah, I like that. Um, because a lot of stuff won't matter in three minutes. You have a very few things that will matter in that three years. Um, but that, that's a very, very good way to look at stuff. Do you ever do the reverse where you're like, this is where I want to be in three years. So this is what I need to accomplish in three months or three weeks or whatever it is.

[00:22:03] I do, but I, I have a, uh, uh, tough relationship with setting goals because they, they tend to, even if I hit them, I'm like that could have done better. Um, but they, but they also tend to make me really anxious. Like it's, I, the way that I sign up for powerlifting meets is like the absolute final day you're allowed to register before the meet is too full.

[00:22:28] Because otherwise I'll be anxious for a, too, too long in advance. How, how much time does that give you then beforehand? Um, I usually for, for nationals, it, I pretty much sign up as soon as it's open. It's about, it's in November. So I give myself about six months. Um, the one I'm going to do in April is I still need, that's what's on my to-do list for today.

[00:22:52] So hopefully we're still a spot. Um, but now like, again, three months is usually a good enough time to, um, to prep for a meet. That's, that's good. That's good. Oh, and I, I, um, I'd seen a wrong hand. Um, congratulations are in order. You just recently got engaged. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah. Who's stronger? You or your fiance?

[00:23:21] He's definitely stronger than me. Yes. Okay. Way stronger. You're not just letting him outlift you? No, he's, um, I mean, he's six feet tall and, uh, probably almost not quite double my body weight. So he's definitely stronger.

[00:23:40] That's a good size. That's definitely a good size. Um, so now you said you liked, um, the, the yoga with the weight in it. Is that, um, your normal workouts where you, I mean, you're coaching a lot. You're, how many classes are you doing a week?

[00:23:57] Um, right now, fortunately my job is mostly geared on taking class and making sure our instructors are teaching to our like company standards. Um, and then also leading the teacher training. So I lead a teacher training for yoga sculpt, which is 50 hours, which is the yoga with weight.

[00:24:17] And then I lead our 200 hour teacher trainings. And, um, we're about to be introducing a new 65 hour training for, um, like heavier weight and no heat. So it's heated yoga. So this, this format that we're introducing is, is heavier weights, no heat circuit training versus the other two are more endurance based training in the heat.

[00:24:38] Um, but I teach three classes a week. Um, but I teach three classes a week and then the rest of my time is either traveling to our other studios and leading trainings or doing quality assistance or planning for the training upcoming trainings. That sounds like an awesome job. How like that sounds awesome. Like your whole life is fitness. That's incredible. How did you get into, how did that evolve? Or was it just kind of, um,

[00:25:06] um, on, I mean, I started yoga because I was like, this is the only thing that my doctors will allow me to do because it's technically not working out. So I found a free week and, um, fell in love with the studio. Actually the studio that I'm at right now is the first, you know, class I ever took here. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. And the amazing thing about the teacher trainings is that you get so close with the community of people who are doing it with you. And I honestly took the training just because I wanted to be the best at doing yoga.

[00:25:36] Like I didn't want to see a trend here, Megan. I just wanted to be really good at doing yoga. And, um, as an adult, it's not often that we are in a teaching environment that in a learning environment that it, you, you have to be extremely vulnerable around a bunch of people that you don't know, because you're going to be put on the spot and you're going to be trying to do this.

[00:26:01] And you are going to mess up. Um, and you are going to show up for these trainings when life outside isn't going well and you really don't want to be there. And you get to see that people actually are supportive and like being around you more when you are authentic and not like, um, acting from, you know, your ego or this place of perfecting or performance. And that was what I took away from training was that was that piece of authenticity and vulnerability.

[00:26:32] And that was why I decided to teach. I was like, well, everybody just needs to know this. Um, and because I, again, I really wanted to speak more to the people who are mobile and need to develop that strength.

[00:26:47] And I was like, there's such a lack of that in the yoga community that we, we don't teach to people who need to learn how to stabilize their joints and build muscle and, um, how to correct the misalignment in that pose for somebody who is, you know, stretching too much in it.

[00:27:05] How many people, um, how many people when they come in, um, do you get people who have a, uh, like a big yoga background or is it, do you get some people like me who, who have tried a few YouTube, uh, videos and that's the extent of it. I had one woman who was actually trained, um, with Bikram, like had been teaching Bikram for years and years and wanted to learn vinyasa style power yoga. And she took the training.

[00:27:35] And then I have some people who signed up because they had just moved to California and they felt like this was a good community and they just wanted to meet more people. So it's wow. Yeah. It's like a 50 hour course that they have to go through. Is it a 50 hour course? Is that like, I know you have different ranges of them, but is that the minimum? Um, the, the, yeah, 50 hours is the, the minimum one.

[00:28:02] The way that we do it is it'll either be in a, um, a two week, a three week or a four week program. So it'll be like two week nights and then a weekend intensive for two weeks or something like, yeah. Now I, I've done some yoga. I've never been to a studio. I think when you talk about vulnerability that, uh, I'm not ready for that yet. Cause, um, no, I would be where, where I want to do this part.

[00:28:27] It's called the, the movement series where I go and I might drag Tim, um, when he can to different things where people are just moving and staying fit. And it's the first one I'm going to do, I think will be March 8th. It's a Saturday to go. I, it's where I play basketball, but videotape it and show like we have ranges from age probably 21 to 78. And this guy is still running up and down the court and he does pretty well.

[00:28:56] So just showing different ways to stay active and to be healthy. And I like going to a yoga studio would be very humbling for me, but I think that's, I think it's really good for you. We have all levels here in, in people who take class. It's across the board. We have brand new beginners to people who this is their Monday morning, every single week for the past, however long the studio has been open.

[00:29:25] That's awesome. And would you, and I know you're a little biased cause you're, you love yoga, but would you recommend this on some level to everybody? Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. If I have cues, I would say weightlifting. Um, but they're, they're both like, they compliment each other very well. Uh, if you wanted to get into yoga, how many days a week would you think would be sufficient? I think two days a week is, is fine.

[00:29:55] And even you can even start, there's so many videos like on demand or on YouTube. If you just want to learn like the basic poses that you'll see in class. That way. Yeah. Onward facing dog and warrior two. Those are. I know that one. I know the warrior ones. Yeah. There are a couple of them where you got to step through between the hands. Yep. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's yeah, definitely. I did actually, and I mentioned this before I did P90X.

[00:30:24] Um, I don't know if you're familiar with that. If you've done yoga with P90X, then you are, you're ready. Like that's pretty cool. I never, it was 90 minutes and I never got through the full 90 minutes once. Like it would, I, I got close a few times, but it's hard. It is really hard. And I was all like, I would focus on weightlifting. So my mobility, um, was definitely not what it should like. Straight line speed is fine.

[00:30:50] Agility wise was fine, but just flexibility was not what it needed to be. So, um, yeah, that was bad. Um, but you also got into lifting weights. Um, and I, whenever, and I'm not trying to generalize here, but a lot of times women are more concerned with getting bulky and they don't want to lift weights. It's never been an issue for guys and dying to get bulky from lifting weights.

[00:31:19] It doesn't just happen. Um, but in terms of lifting weights, is that how many times a day or times a week are you, are you doing that? Um, currently because, um, my job is, you know, pretty demanding. I currently three to four days a week lifting. That's, that's a good amount with your job and everything you're doing.

[00:31:48] I've actually found now that, I mean, um, now that I've been training for so long, it's real, I mean, I'm sure people who lift or train for strength can relate like the, the incremental amounts of weight that I'm able to add to my PRs. Uh, it is so much better when I take more resting. Yes.

[00:32:14] Which doesn't seem like it would make sense, but yeah, I, um, I can't think of the guy's name, Justin something or other on YouTube. He does a lot of science-based lifting and he found, I think it was five days in a week is the most you should do six days. It starts to go down in seven days. It's almost detrimental. Um, that doesn't mean you sit on your butt for day six and seven, you can do, you know,

[00:32:39] stretches and active recovery and, um, plenty of other things, but yeah, that's, it's funny. And then if you're getting seven to eight hours of sleep at night, you're actually, you're fueling your body the proper way. Like that's when it happens, it's all of it. So that's, it's funny to hear you say that. Cause that's definitely, that's definitely true. Yeah. Well, it's really interesting too, because I just, so this new format that we're rolling out that is more heavyweight, uh, strength training.

[00:33:04] We, I just had to lead all of our managers and instructors in a quick intensive so that they would be able to start teaching this format. And that was one of the things that I really had to like drill into them that like more is not necessarily more volume isn't necessarily better. Like, so do you, would you offer this seven days a week and people go when they can, or are you like, would you have to restrict when people can go?

[00:33:34] Cause I imagine seven days. You're not lifting heavy enough for it to be like drastically or taxing your central nervous system. Our dumbbells only go up to like 40 pounds. So, um, it's, it's, it depends what you're doing. 40 pounds can be, if it's, you know, lat raises and everything else like that can, that can burn pretty quickly, but I get, I get what you're saying. Yeah. And as far as like yoga and yoga sculpts, they're mostly endurance workouts, um, and mobility workouts.

[00:34:12] Are you making this up yourself or are there people you're learning from? Like corporate level who, you know, design the information. This one has actually been designed with, um, with NASM and NASM trainers. Okay. So it's, there's a lot, a lot of information in there. I'm just delivering it. But you've got to learn it in order to deliver it. So that's, that's gotta take, that's gotta take you some time too. This can't be like a two week rollout.

[00:34:42] Like this, this has gotta be, I imagine a lengthy process. We're, we're trying to get as many, um, people who are already instructors, um, invested in this, which again is, is tough because so many people do have that misconception that lifting heavy makes you bulky. Um, and they'd rather take a 60 minute heated sculpt class because you leave sweaty and exhausted

[00:35:05] than a 45 minute non-heated strength class because you don't leave completely dead. Yeah. But you are building strength. Which is important. I mean, if you could convince them to try it for a month and just see the gains that they have. So we had the next day after we did a six hour intensive and then the next day they came back and they were like, I've never been this sore in my life. And I was like, what?

[00:35:36] Six hours of that. And then it came. It was a lot of just going over movements and what you would like, what potential misalignments you would see. Um, and how you could help that individual. Like if you see somebody who is like their heels are lifting in a squat, like what could you assume about their ankle mobility, um, and how we speak to that person. That's, that's important though.

[00:36:02] If they're working hands on it, I think a lot of times, um, I forget which episode was one of the earlier ones, but a lot of group classes, um, people get injured or they're not getting the benefits they should because I'm not like trying to talk ill of anybody, but some of the instructors don't understand all the aspects of that. And if you have 20 people in a class getting one person around to see everybody like that, that's not easy to do.

[00:36:30] Um, so the fact that it's all dialed in like that, I think is incredibly valuable to, yeah. And a lot of people still view intensity and working harder as more reps and moving faster, which when you're trying to build strength, like that's counterintuitive. Yes. You're building endurance. If you're going faster and yeah, no, you slow it down, control the weight, get the full stretch, full range of motion.

[00:37:00] Um, yeah, I, I, you mean, I've definitely been guilty of that too. Sometimes where you're just, you're going, your form slipping and then you look in the mirror when you're using the mirror at the gym, the right way, when you're trying to check your form, um, that, yeah, you're like, all right, that, that was crap. I got to read. I got to do that again, but you can feel it too. In the, in the, whatever exercise you're doing, you know, if you're doing it right. And if you're doing a bicep curl and your shoulders are sore, you're, you're kind of,

[00:37:30] you're not doing it right. That's, that's not the way it should be. Um, are you, when you go to the gym, do you see a lot of, um, people from yoga at the, like, is it close by and you see the same people? No, it's a separate world. None of my students go to the gym with me. Um, despite my incessant nagging. Um, so no, I, I'm very fortunate in that I, uh, go to a powerlifting gym.

[00:37:58] There's a little bit of bodybuilding in it, but it is primarily powerlifting. There's a people from all, all levels, all age ranges, people who are just there for, um, functional fitness for lifestyle fitness. And there are people who are serious about competing in powerlifting. So, um, everybody there is working on something like working on something.

[00:38:25] That's gotta be a fun community to be a part of though, because it's, I mean, it takes a special person to go into a powerlifting gym and that's where you work out. So I imagine you guys all have that camaraderie where you're helping each other out and there's I'm sure some friendly competition going on, but even if you don't know the people, cause you know, certain people go at different times and I don't even think all of us know each other's names, but anytime you see somebody who was like gearing up for a heavy lift, everybody stops and cheers them on or like, well, yeah.

[00:38:55] Yeah. And you don't know their name, but you're like, oh, it's short shorts. I love that guy. I got a video of you squatting. Um, I can say, I can airdrop it to you if you want. Yeah. What's, what's your name again? I don't, but that's the, like you see the same exact people. I'm sure you talk to them for five or 10 minutes and I try to get good with names and I know most of them, but there are some where you're like, well, I, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You're my best friend, but I don't know your name. Yeah. Every day. Yeah.

[00:39:25] Every day. Yeah. Um, well, thank you, Megan. I appreciate you hopping on. Um, is there anything we didn't cover that you want to make sure we, we touch base on? Um, no, I think if anybody is, you know, dabbling in powerlifting or even just learning like squat, bench or deadlift, enter a powerlifting competition.

[00:39:48] Um, because similarly to the gym that I'm talking about, like those competitions are so supportive and such a nonjudgmental for the most part, I can't speak for everybody, but for the most part, my experience has been that they are just supportive, nonjudgmental communities of people who are just actively doing something that they love, um, and pushing themselves.

[00:40:14] And I don't think we have as adults enough of those, uh, communities or relationships of people who are just trying really hard to do something that they enjoy that makes them better. Yeah. I think that's it. I like how you said nonjudgmental. I feel like most people doing that are not going to be judgmental and it doesn't matter where you start because there's a level of respect where someone's in there working their butt off.

[00:40:44] Even if the weight is less than what you lift or whatever it happens to be, you can see effort. You can see, like you said before, vulnerability and trying something that you haven't done before. Um, that definitely brings a level of respect, um, that people have, which, um, sometimes the, the lifting community gets mocked and sometimes rightfully so, because we can be a little silly

[00:41:07] at times, but I also think that, um, overall people just are in there to get healthy and to exercise and to be fit. And it's something that, um, I think we can all use a little bit more of. Yeah, totally. And like no hate on bodybuilding. I think bodybuilding is great and, you know, can have the same benefits.

[00:41:28] My experience with powerlifting is it is much less, um, much less competitive. I mean, if you're, if you're competing for the, you know, top 1%, it gets a little bit competitive, like heated, but for the most part, nobody knows how much weight you're lifting on the bar when you go out there and everybody is cheering for you. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, maybe I got to try that now too. We'll see.

[00:41:58] Highly recommend it. All right. Well, thank you so much, Megan. I appreciate it. How can people get in touch with you? Um, if they want to reach out. My Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, direct messages and stuff. Yeah. Or an email is fine. Okay. Um, and I'll put it in. What was that? I was going to say, or come take a class at core power. If you're in Southern California. Yeah.

[00:42:24] Send me the, uh, some information on that and I'll put it in the show notes and, um, we do a weekly newsletter. Um, so I'll put that in there and do you have a website or is it, uh, things Instagram's the best way? No. Or TikTok? The best way or email. Uh, what's the email? It's, um, Meg, M E G dot J O A N at live.com. At live.com. All right. I'll throw that in there too. All right. Well, thank you.

[00:42:53] And thank you everybody for listening. Uh, we appreciate you being here. As I said before, I'm kind of rolling solo on this one now without Tim. So please spread the word, pass us on to everybody you've ever spoken to in your life. Uh, and that will help us out immensely. So thank you, Megan. I, again, sincerely, thank you. I appreciate you, uh, rescheduling cause I was an idiot and didn't check the time and for you trying to take the blame on that one. I appreciate that. Well, thank you for having me.

[00:43:22] It was great to chat. Wow.